Genetic and Epigenetic Biomarkers for Recurrent Prostate Cancer After Radiotherapy

Some prostate cancers are very aggressive and progress to metastasis. Accumulating evidence suggests that the angiogenesis pathway may play a critical role for this aggressiveness. The significance of angiogenesis in prostate cancer is demonstrated by its correlation with Gleason score, clinical stage, progression, metastasis and survival. However, relatively few studies have assessed the role of genes involved in angiogenesis in recurrence of prostate cancer after radiotherapy. On the basis of strong biological rationale, we propose to comprehensively study this pathway in a well-characterized cohort of prostate cancer cases. Our hypothesis is that genetic and epigenetic individual variation in angiogenesis genes is associated with recurrence of prostate cancer after radiotherapy. We will test this hypothesis with a systematic evaluation of the 82 key genes in the angiogenesis pathway with recurrence of prostate cancer. The ultimate goal of this study is to identify biomarkers that can be used at the time of diagnosis to predict risk of recurrence and improve clinical treatment decision making.