New findings on benign prostate hyperplasia and prostate cancer
A recent study provides new insights into both prostate cancer and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). Researchers at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center studied levels of the protein p27 in tissue samples from 130 patients with prostate cancer and samples from both men with benign prostate hyperplasia and healthy men to collect data. The study found that, while normal prostate tissue contains high levels of both the p27 protein and its p27KIP1 messenger ribonucleic acid (RNA), both the messenger and the protein were undetectable in patients with BPH and that patients with prostate cancer had high levels of the messenger RNA but variable levels of p27. It was further found that, in prostate cancer patients, low p27 levels were associated with a more aggressive form of the cancer. Authors say the finding support hypotheses that prostate cancer can develop in two different ways: through the loss of p27 and through mechanisms that circumvent the cancer suppression effects of p27; it was also noted that the findings on p27 and its messenger ribonucleic acid sin benign prostate hyperplasia patients suggest that BPH is not necessarily a precursor to prostate cancer, as has been previously suggested.