Laurence Klotz, MD, presented “MicroRNA Expression Profiles Identify Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer” during the 29th Annual International Prostate Cancer Update on January 26, 2019 in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
How to cite: Klotz, Laurence “MicroRNA Expression Profiles Identify Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer” January 26, 2019. Accessed Dec 2024. https://dev.grandroundsinurology.com/microrna-expression-profiles-identify-clinically-significant-prostate-cancer/
MicroRNA Expression Profiles Identify Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer – Summary:
Laurence Klotz, MD, discusses a liquid biopsy urine test that uses microRNA expression profiles to identify clinically significant prostate cancer in patients. He emphasizes the ease and efficiency of the technology, in addition to its high degree of sensitivity and specificity.
A New MicroRNA Expression Profile System
There are a plethora of biomarkers currently available for detecting prostate cancer and predicting treatment responses. However, a microRNA expression profile assay from miR Scientific is a platform evaluating intracellular communications rather than evaluating a single biomarker. This platform technology has potential for diagnosis and risk stratification in prostate cancer as well as multiple urologic diseases.
The platform utilizes the thousands of exosomes that cancer cells shed into the urine every day. These exosomes contain contain microRNA, protein, and enzymes. This liquid biopsy urine test uses a panel of around 6,000 microRNAs. There are 50 to 250 microRNAs that predict for the presence of various disease types, stages, and risk categories. In addition to prostate cancer, it can detect information regarding bladder and kidney cancer. Thus, upon the development of a microRNA expression profile, the iterative addition of information from each sncRNA species leads to the calculation of a Sentinel Score™. The Sentinel Score™ measures disease severity and likelihood of having a disease.
This microRNA expression profile assay is unlike other biomarker tests because it does not rely on understanding the function of microRNAs found. Instead, the assay looks for the presence of microRNAs that are the most predictive of cancer.
Initial Data
This microRNA expression profile system is efficient and cost-effective. It has the ability to run around 240 samples per day. Initial trial findings show that the first panel, which simply looks at whether or not patients have prostate cancer, proved to have greater than 95% sensitivity and specificity. The second panel, which looks at clinically significant versus clinically insignificant prostate cancer, proved to have 95% specificity and 93% sensitivity.
MicroRNA expression profiles represent a promising new variation on using biomarkers to identify clinically significant prostate cancer. Also promising is the development of new panels to make the system useful for looking at further cancer sites.
About the International Prostate Cancer Update
The International Prostate Cancer Update (IPCU) is an annual, multi-day CME conference focused on prostate cancer treatment updates. The conference’s faculty consists of international experts, and the event caters to urologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, and other healthcare professionals. Topics encompass prostate cancer management, from diagnosis to treating advanced and metastatic disease. Dr. Klotz presented this lecture during the 29th IPCU in 2019. Please visit this page in order to learn more about future IPCU meetings.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laurence Klotz, MD, is the former Chief of Urology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and former President of the Urological Research Society and the Canadian Urological Association. He currently serves as Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto and holds the Sunnybrook Chair of Prostate Cancer Research. Dr. Klotz was the Founding Editor-in-Chief of both the Canadian Journal of Urology and the Canadian Urology Association Journal, and is now Editor Emeritus of the CUAJ. He is the Founder and Chairman of the Canadian Urology Research Consortium (CURC), and is also the Chair of the Global GU Oncology Group.
Dr. Klotz obtained his medical degree from the University of Toronto and completed his residency at the University of Toronto Gallie Program in Surgery. He was a fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York in uro-oncology.
Dr. Klotz is a widely published uro-oncologist with over 350 publications and several books. His main research interest has been prostate cancer. He has served on the boards of many medical/scientific organizations and journals, including the SUO, Prostate Cancer Canada, the journals Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases, Brazilian Journal of Urology, Italian Journal of Urology, and World Journal of Urology.
Dr. Klotz was awarded the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for meritorious public service in 2012, and the University of Toronto Department of Surgery Lister Prize and the Society of Urologic Oncology Medal in 2013. He received the Harold Warwick Award from the Canadian Cancer Society for ‘outstanding contributions to cancer control’ in 2014. He received the Order of Canada in 2015, and the Richard Williams Award from the AUA in 2016. He received the Dean’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Toronto in 2017.
