Urinary PGE-M: A Promising Cancer Biomarker
Menée auprès de 307 patientes ménopausées atteintes d'un cancer du sein et auprès de 300 femmes saines ayant une sœur atteinte de la maladie, cette étude prospective américaine évalue l'association entre le niveau urinaire d'un métabolite de la prostaglandine E2 et le risque de cancer du sein
Cancer prevention, early diagnosis, and targeted therapies are the keys to success in better cancer control and treatment. A big challenge remains to identify biomarkers for predicting who may have higher cancer risk and are able to respond to certain chemopreventive agents as well as for assessing a patient's response during treatment. Although a large body of evidence indicates that chronic inflammation is a risk factor for cancer, it is unclear whether inflammatory biomarkers can be used to predict cancer risk, progression, and death. Considering the importance of the pro-inflammatory COX-2-derived prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in inflammation and cancers, Morris and colleagues found that urinary PGE-M is positively associated with obesity, smoking, and lung metastases in breast cancer patients (beginning on page XXX). Along the same lines, Kim and colleagues showed a potential association between urinary PGE-M and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women (beginning on page XXX). In agreement with previous reports, their findings indicate that urinary PGE-M may serve as a promising biomarker for prognosticating cancer risk and disease progression.
Cancer Prevention Research , commentaire, 2013