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Prostate Cancer : A Complex Disease With Multiple Tumors

Decent Essays

Lay Abstract: Prostate cancer is a complex disease with multiple tumors originating independently at different stages of growth. Although morphological differences (morphological heterogeneity) has been well recognized, the underlying molecular complexity in each tumor foci has not been well studied. Tumor growth in each foci can be determined by independent driver molecular aberration(s). Understanding the molecular level of differences (molecular heterogeneity) in each tumor foci would help to differentiate the patients who may undergo indolent or aggressive disease course. Further, morphological differences mostly help to understand the stage of the disease, but it is not possible to select appropriate targeted therapy. If different tumor foci carry different driver molecular aberrations, targeted therapy for single molecular aberrations may not yield the curative benefit to the patients. Conventionally, systematic sampling of large tumor foci or high Gleason grade tumor foci have been considered for various genetic and molecular studies. In this approach smaller tumor foci with important driver molecular aberration and high metastatic potential can be easily missed. Therefore, using our novel approach, we propose to screen the entire prostate tissue (whole-mount prostatectomy specimen mounted on large glass slide) to assess molecular differences in each tumor foci using well characterized prostate cancer specific molecular markers.
Given the distinct ancestral

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