Abnormal Gene Fusion Identified in Prostate Cancer

Bioinformatics is a key part of the genomic revolution. There’s no better example of this than the recent finding made by a team of researchers led by Arul Chinnaiyan who screened oncogenes from the data of over 10,000 individual tumors in Oncomine, a publicly available database. They found in prostate cancer samples an abnormal fusion of the TMPRSS2 gene and a gene encoding an ETS transcription factor, either ERG or ETV1, leading to over-expression then cancerous growth.

This type of translocation mutation is often found in blood cancers, but rarely in solid epithelial tumors. With these findings, researchers hope to develop small molecules to inhibit ERG and ETV1 over-expression or understand better how androgen inhibition helps to stop tumor growth. The detection of this translocation may also be used to develop a molecular screening test.

Cancer NewsWatch has more on this development (thanks for the tip, Cary!). And Stew writes Flags and Lollipops, a bioinformatics blog.

The Scientist, October 28, 2005