Analysis of laser-microdissected prostate cancer tissues reveals potential tumor markers

Prostate cancer (PCA) is a clinically heterogeneous and often multifocal disease with a clinical outcome difficult to predict. A deeper knowledge of the molecular basis of the disease may lead to a better prediction of prognosis. Therefore, in this study we investigated the molecular basis of PCA by identifying potential tumor markers in laser-microdisected PCA tissues. Among a group of PCA patients, quantitative RT-PCR analysis was performed to compare the expression of 70 genes. These genes were selected from the results of two microarrays which investigated the gene expression profile differences between moderately or poorly differentiated prostate carcinoma glands and the corresponding normal glands. Among the genes examined, CDKN2A, GATA3, CREBBP, ITGA2, NBL1 and TGM4 were down-regulated in the prostate carcinoma glands compared to the corresponding normal glands, whereas TFF3, TMPRSS2 and ERG were up-regulated. Our findings indicate that these genes may play roles as tumor suppressor genes or oncogenes in PCA, and may serve as potential tumor markers and novel therapeutic targets.