Oxford scientists link blood proteins to prostate cancer risk 15 years before diagnosis

Proteins as an early signal

Special proteins in men's blood may indicate an elevated risk of prostate cancer more than 15 years before diagnosis — this is the conclusion reached by researchers at the University of Oxford, as reported by euronews. The study was published in the journal European Urology. 'Detecting in the blood proteins linked to known driver genes of prostate cancer, in samples collected many years before diagnosis, gives us new insight into the earliest stages of the disease,' said the study's lead investigator Karl Smith-Byrne.

How the study was conducted

The scientists analysed blood samples collected between 1992 and 2000 from more than 2,500 men. They compared the baseline samples of 982 men who later developed prostate cancer with those of 1,573 men who did not develop the disease. More than 6,000 different proteins were measured in the blood plasma of each participant. Since the samples had been taken years before diagnosis — sometimes more than 15 years before — the researchers were able to look for early chemical signals, namely changes in proteins.

What exactly was found

Some of the proteins were associated with an increased overall risk of prostate cancer, while others were linked primarily to aggressive or fast-growing forms of the disease. At the same time, men with higher levels of certain immune-system proteins, such as GZMK and ANXA2, had a lower long-term risk of the disease. For context: prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the European Union and the second most common in the world after lung cancer; in the EU, around 330,000 new cases are diagnosed and around 75,000 men die each year.

Not yet a screening test

The authors stress that the findings cannot yet be regarded as a full-fledged screening test — they require further validation. 'Many prostate tumours grow slowly and may never cause harm, whereas others turn out to be aggressive and pose a threat to life,' noted the study's first author, Zhe Huang, a postdoctoral epidemiologist at Oxford Population Health. According to her, the researchers hope to better understand the biology of aggressive prostate cancer and to identify markers for more accurate risk assessment in the future. Smith-Byrne added that, combined with existing and future genetic data, the results could help identify biological pathways that can be targeted to prevent aggressive forms of the disease.