Genetic markers useful for distinguishing between organ‐confined and locally advanced prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers and the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the United States. In this study, we performed comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) on 45 primary prostate adenocarcinomas to determine genetic markers that could be useful for distinguishing between organ-confined and locally advanced prostate cancer. Of these tumors, 24 were pT2 stage, 21 were pT3b; 20 had low Gleason scores (GS), 25 had high GS. The most common chromosomal alterations in all 45 tumors included losses on 8p (57.8%), 10q21-->qter (40.0%), 16q (35.6%), 11q21-->qter (28.9%), 16p (22.2%), 6q22-->24 (22.2%), 10p (20.0%), 5q31-->qter (17.8%), 6p (17.8%), 15q22-->qter (15.6%), and 17p (15.6%) as well as gains on 7cen-->p14 (20.0%), 7cen-->q22 (20.0%), and Xcen-->q21 (17.8%). Contingency table analysis showed that losses of 8p, 10q25-->qter, 6p21, 6q24-->qter, and 15q22-->qter were significantly increased in frequency (P < 0.05) with increasing stage and/or GS. A model was created following multivariate logistic regression analysis that was predictive of tumor stage in approximately 90% of the tumors studied. This model suggests that loss of 8p is the most valuable predictor of stage. These findings suggest that chromosomal regions identified in this study may be useful for distinguishing between organ-confined and locally advanced prostate tumors.