Prostate cancer (PC) is the most common cancer in the male population with a high prevalence from 60 years old. Despite the high prevalence, mortality rates are variable and reflect the heterogeneous nature (clinical and biological) of this disease. Recent studies have shown that most patients with low-risk disease do not need treatment. However, in this apparently homogeneous group, there are patients who have aggressive disease - and benefit from therapy.

Authors and Affiliations:

Filipe Pinto^1,2, Nelma Pértega-Gomes³, José R. Vizcaíno⁴, Raquel P. Andrade^5,6, Flavio M. Cárcano^7,8, Rui M. Reis^1,2,8

¹ Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Health Sciences, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

² ICVS/3B’s – PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal

³ Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

Prostate cancer (PCa) remains a major health burden in men, being the second most common non-skin cancer and the fifth leading cause of death from cancer worldwide. Despite the use of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as an important clinical tool for early PCa detection, this test has many shortcomings and has limited prognostic value. Therefore, there is a need of more reliable diagnostic markers to complement PSA, as well as better prognostic markers to differentiate aggressive from indolent tumors.

Hereditary prostate cancer is estimated to account for 5-10% of all prostate cancer cases, but the identification of highly penetrant genes has been difficult. HOXB13 was recently identified as a susceptibility gene for prostate cancer (PrCa) when the rare, but recurrent, germline mutation [G84E, p.(Gly84Glu)] was found in men of European descent, conferring an increased PrCa risk of 4.51-fold.

Authors and Affiliations:

Researchers from the Health Sciences Research Centre of the University of Beira Interior (CICS-UBI) previously established the role of Regucalcin (RGN) in the control of cell survival and proliferation in prostate, and demonstrated that RGN is a protein underexpressed in prostate cancer cases. Now these researchers evaluated the effect of RGN on aging, a well-known risk factor for the development of prostate cancer. Making use of knock-in animals for RGN, the impact of RGN overexpression in cell aging was determined in what concerns cell proliferation, apoptosis and oxidative stress.

Authors and Affiliations:

Diana Mesquita¹, João D. Barros-Silva¹, Joana Santos¹, Rolf I. Skotheim^2,3, Ragnhild A. Lothe^2,3, Paula Paulo^1,2,3 and Manuel R. Teixeira^1,3,4

¹ Department of Genetics and Cancer Genetics Group – CI-IPOP, Portuguese Oncology Institute, Porto, Portugal

Authors and Affiliations:

João Lopes Dias, MD (1), Rita Lucas, MD (2), João Magalhães Pina, MD (3), Raquel João, MD (3), Nuno Vasco Costa, MD (1), Cecília Leal, MD (4), Tiago Bilhim, MD, PhD (1), Luís Campos Pinheiro, MD, PhD (1), Rui Mateus Marques, MD, PhD (1)

(1) Department of Radiology, Hospital de S. José, Lisboa, Portugal

(2) Department of Radiology, Hospital de Santo António dos Capuchos, Lisboa, Portugal

(3) Department of Urology, Hospital de S. José, Lisboa, Portugal

Authors and Affiliations:

Filipa Quintela Vieira^1,2, Pedro Costa-Pinheiro^1,*, Diogo Almeida-Rios^1,5,*, Inês Graça^1,2, Sara Monteiro-Reis^1,5, Susana Simões-Sousa^3,4, Isa Carneiro^1,5, Elsa Joana Sousa¹, Maria Inês Godinho⁶, Fátima Baltazar^3,4, Rui Henrique^1,5,7,*,#, Carmen Jerónimo^1,7*,#

¹ Cancer Biology and Epigenetics Group – Research Center, Portuguese Oncology Institute – Porto, Portugal

A research team from the Health Sciences Research Centre, University of Beira Interior (CICS-UBI) recently published in the Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology a study aiming to unveil the role of androgens in regulating the glycolytic metabolism, and the production and export of lactate in human prostate cancer cells.