Decreased expression of Cyr61 is associated with prostate cancer recurrence after surgical treatment

Cysteine-rich angiogenic inducer 61 (Cyr61) is an extracellular matrix protein involved in the transduction of growth factor and hormone signaling. Previous studies have suggested that Cyr61 may be a marker for a more aggressive phenotype. In this study, we evaluated the association between Cyr61 staining intensity and subsequent recurrence after surgical treatment of clinically localized prostate cancer.

A study of 229 men with recurrence and 229 controls matched on age, race, pathologic stage, and Gleason sum nested in a cohort of men who underwent radical prostatectomy for clinically localized prostate cancer, utilizing immunohistochemistry analysis of tissue microarray (TMA) sections, was conducted. Odds ratios (OR) of recurrence and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using conditional logistic regression.

Recurrence was identified in 12.2% of cases, and in 24.0% of controls that had at least 1 TMA spot containing cancer with a staining intensity of 3 (P = 0.001). Taking into account age, pathologic stage and grade, presurgery prostate-specific antigen concentration, and calendar of surgery as a measure of tissue block storage time, men with a Cyr61 staining intensity of 3 were 56% less likely to recur than men with a lower staining intensity (OR = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.22-0.90).

High Cyr61 staining intensity in adenocarcinoma was associated with a lower risk of recurrence after surgical treatment of prostate cancer independent of pathologic tumor characteristics. If validated in other sample sets, Cyr61 may serve as a tissue biomarker for stratifying men for risk of recurrence and thus could inform treatment decision making.