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Updated: Jul 9, 2026
Microarray-based Identification of Individual HERV Loci Expression: Application to Biomarker Discovery in Prostate Cancer
Published on: November 2, 2013
ADAM9 expression is a significant and independent prognostic marker of PSA relapse in prostate cancer
Florian R Fritzsche1, Monika Jung, Angelika Tölle
1Institute of Pathology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Objectives:
A disintegrin and metalloprotease (ADAM) 9 has been implicated in tumour progression of prostate cancer. We evaluated the expression of ADAM9 on protein and messenger RNA (mRNA) level in a larger cohort of prostate cancer cases following prostatectomy and correlated the findings with clinicopathological parameters including prostate-specific antigen (PSA) relapse times.
Methods:
We immunostained 198 clinicopathologically characterised prostate cancer cases for ADAM9. For 25 additional cases, ADAM9 mRNA of microdissected tumour and normal tissue was analysed via quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction.
Results:
ADAM9 was significantly upregulated in prostate cancer compared with normal tissue on mRNA and protein level. ADAM9 protein expression was significantly associated with shortened PSA relapse-free survival in univariate and multivariate analyses, particularly in patients who had received prior androgen ablation.
Conclusions:
ADAM9 is overexpressed in prostate cancer cases and is an independent prognostic marker of PSA relapse-free survival following radical prostatectomy. Further studies are needed to verify its role as a predictive marker of response to androgen ablation.