©2024 - Stefano Forte
EV based liquid Biopsy - The role in EVs in disease progression
Prostate cancer ranks as the second most prevalent cancer in men globally, and its occurrence is on the rise. Early detection is essential to improve patient outcomes, though current screening techniques have notable limitations. The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, the primary screening tool, has low specificity, which results in a high number of false positives and unnecessary biopsies. Traditional biopsy methods are invasive and carry risks of complications. Liquid biopsy techniques, which analyze biomarkers in blood or other bodily fluids, offer a non-invasive and potentially more accurate alternative for identifying and profiling prostate tumors. In our study, we introduce a new liquid biopsy approach for prostate cancer detection that focuses on specific protein markers in extracellular vesicles derived from the blood of patients with prostate cancer. Our findings reveal that particular combinations of proteins in small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) serve as sensitive indicators of prostate cancer. We observed that protein clusters containing specific intra-vesicular markers (STAT3 and CyclinD1) or surface markers (ERBB3, ALK, and CD81) can reliably differentiate between patients with prostate cancer and those with hyperplasia. This novel liquid biopsy method shows promise in enhancing prostate cancer screening by offering a non-invasive and more precise diagnostic option.
Prostate Cancer
©2024 - Stefano Forte