Current Challenges in Development of Differentially Expressed and Prognostic Prostate Cancer Biomarkers

Table 1

Differentially expressed genes reported to be prognostic for prostate cancer.

	Target/function	Role in prostate cancer	Prognostic role
PTEN [11]	Regulator of PI3K pathway, cell cycle, tumor suppressor, targets miR21	Decreased invasion, migration	Gleason score, stage, BCR, metastasis
TMPRSS2-ERG [12, 13]	Trans membrane protease regulated by androgen receptor, fuses with ETS transcription factors	Increased tumor genesis, androgen independence	Diagnosis, androgen independence
Myc [14]	Transcription factor	Increased proliferation	Progression, survival, BCR after radiation
TGF-β [15]	Stops cell proliferation, stimulates differentiation	Increased cell growth, angiogenesis, suppress immune cells	Cancer-specific survival
IL-1 [16]	Activates NFKβ	Increased tumor genesis	Progression
IL-6 [17]	Paracrine and anticrime growth stimulator	Increased proliferation	Progression
IL-7 [15]	Inhibits TGFβ production	Decreased results in immune resistance	Cancer-specific survival
CCL-2 [18]	Chemokine stimulates inflammatory cell chemo taxis	Increased cell growth, invasion, metastasis	Tumor volume, Gleason score
NPY [19]	Neurotransmitter, regulates cell growth via Y1-R	Decreased cell growth, metastasis	D’Amico risk group, BCR
SMAD4 [20]	Modulates TGFβ family of genes	Decreased differentiation, apoptosis	BCR and metastasis
Ki-67 [21]	Cell cycle regulation	Decreased proliferation	Gleason score, BCR
P53 [21]	Cell cycle regulation	Increased differentiation	Gleason score, survival
P16 [22]	Regulation of several targets (CDKN2a, TMS1)	Decreased proliferation	Gleason score
P21 [23]	Regulates cell growth	Decreased proliferation	BCR after surgery
BCL2 [24, 25]	Regulates apoptosis, affects caspases, mitochondria	Increased cell survival	BCR after surgery and radiation
BAX [26]	Proapoptotic; BCL2 gene family	Decreased cell survival	BCR after radiation
VEGF [27, 28]	Angiogenesis	Increased invasion	Gleason Score, survival, BCR
E-cadherin [29]	Intracellular adhesion in presence of calcium	Decreased invasion, migration	Gleason score, progression, survival
EZH2 [30, 31]	Targets a methyltransferase; regulates tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase	Decreased invasion, migration	Gleason score
TRAIL [32]	Stromal TRAIL stimulates apoptosis	Decreased stromal expression-cell survival	Recurrence-free survival
PLA2G7 [33, 34]	Target of ERG, regulates actin expression	Increased migration and invasion	Gleason score, metastasis
Nukeβ [35]	Regulates transcription, inflammation. Inversely expressed with CD10	Unregulated cell survival	BCR after prostatectomy