Quantitative Analysis of Seven New Prostate Cancer Biomarkers and the Potential Future of the ‘Biomarker Laboratory’
Kevin Cao,
Callum Arthurs,
Ali Atta-ul,
Michael Millar,
Mariana Beltran,
Jochen Neuhaus,
Lars-Christian Horn,
Rui Henrique,
Aamir Ahmed,
Christopher Thrasivoulou
Affiliations
Kevin Cao
Prostate Cancer Research Centre at the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, King’s College London, London WC2R 2LS, UK
Callum Arthurs
Prostate Cancer Research Centre at the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, King’s College London, London WC2R 2LS, UK
Ali Atta-ul
Prostate Cancer Research Centre, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Michael Millar
Queen’s Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, UK
Mariana Beltran
Aquila BioMedical, Nine, Edinburgh BioQuarter, 9 Little France Road, Edinburgh EH16 4UX, UK
Jochen Neuhaus
Head of Urology Research Laboratories, University of Leipzig, Department of Urology, Research Laboratory, Liebigstr. 19, Building C, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
Lars-Christian Horn
Division of Gynecologic, Breast & Perinatal Pathology, University Hospital Leipzig, Liebigstasse 24 D, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
Rui Henrique
Department of Pathology, Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal
Aamir Ahmed
Prostate Cancer Research Centre at the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, King’s College London, London WC2R 2LS, UK
Christopher Thrasivoulou
Research Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, The Centre for Cell and Molecular Dynamics, Rockefeller Building, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Prostate cancer is the third highest cause of male mortality in the developed world, with the burden of the disease increasing dramatically with demographic change. There are significant limitations to the current diagnostic regimens and no established effective screening modality. To this end, research has discovered hundreds of potential ‘biomarkers’ that may one day be of use in screening, diagnosis or prognostication. However, the barriers to bringing biomarkers to clinical evaluation and eventually into clinical usage have yet to be realised. This is an operational challenge that requires some new thinking and development of paradigms to increase the efficiency of the laboratory process and add ‘value’ to the clinician. Value comes in various forms, whether it be a process that is seamlessly integrated into the hospital laboratory environment or one that can provide additional ‘information’ for the clinical pathologist in terms of risk profiling. We describe, herein, an efficient and tissue-conserving pipeline that uses Tissue Microarrays in a semi-automated process that could, one day, be integrated into the hospital laboratory domain, using seven putative prostate cancer biomarkers for illustration.