Biomarkers in prostate cancer: Multi-sample transcriptomics overcomes heterogeneity and reveals genes with prognostic biomarker potential
Gene expression profiling of multiple intra-patient tumor foci reveals new insights about the heterogeneity in prostate cancer.
Jonas Meier-Strømme and colleagues have performed the first large genome-scale study of the transcriptomic heterogeneity of multifocal prostate cancer. In the study, the authors demonstrate exceptionally high degree of intra-patient heterogeneity, both in terms of expression of genes, fusion genes, and somatic mutations. They do, however, also nominate specific genes for which the expression levels are similar across distinct tumor foci, and that may provide the same robust information about the cancer regardless of which individual focus is being sampled.
Behind the paper: The quest for biomarkers in prostate cancer: Multi-sample transcriptomics overcomes heterogeneity and reveals genes with prognostic biomarker potential.
Original article: Strømme JM, Johannessen B, Kidd SG, Bogaard M, Carm KT, Zhang X, Sveen A, Mathelier A, Lothe RA, Axcrona U, Axcrona K, Skotheim R; Expressed prognostic biomarkers for primary prostate cancer independent of multifocality and transcriptome heterogeneity, Cancer Gene Therapy, 2022.