In the era of PSA screening, the incidence of prostate cancer has increased more than two fold with a concomitant rise in the number of radical prostatectomies performed. However, there has been only a modest decrease in cause-specific mortality. Thus, we are subjecting many patients with biologically indolent cancers to the morbidities of prostate cancer treatments such as radical prostatectomy, brachytherapy, and external beam radiation therapy. One of the strongest predictors of clinically aggressive behavior is high Gleason grade. However, we do not understand at a molecular level what differentiates low grade from high grade cancers. Using a candidate gene approach, differences in DNA methylation patterns have been shown between benign prostate and prostate cancer. More importantly, our preliminary data indicate that there are extensive DNA methylation differences between low and high Gleason grade cancers. Therefore, we hypothesize that DNA methylation differences underlie biological differences between indolent and aggressive prostate cancer.
In Aim 1, we will perform a genome-wide mapping of DNA methylation patterns in benign prostate, low grade, and high grade cancers to identify areas of hypo- and hyper- methylation.
In aim 2, we will subsequently validate these differences in additional, independent cohorts of clinical specimens. The goal is to utilize methylation differences as biomarkers that can distinguish between indolent and aggressive forms of the disease. Ultimately, these discoveries will help us understand the fundamental biological differences between indolent and aggressive prostate cancer, identify new biomarkers to distinguish them, and provide therapeutic targets for effective treatments.

Public Health Relevance

There are no non-invasive techniques that can distinguish between indolent and aggressive forms of prostate cancer, and therefore, many men diagnosed with prostate cancer undergo invasive treatments with highly undesirable side effects even when we are not sure that the cancer they harbor will ultimately cause them harm. DNA methylation is a chemical modification of DNA that, in prostate cancer, can prevent caretaker genes and tumor suppressors from being manufactured in a cell, and we hypothesize that changes in DNA methylation can account for differences in prostate cancer aggressiveness. The goal of this project is to identify DNA methylation marks that distinguish between indolent and aggressive prostate cancer, thus helping clinicians decide whether a patient needs treatment for prostate cancer and enhancing our understanding of the nature of the disease.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01CA154356-03
Application #
8504796
Study Section
Cancer Genetics Study Section (CG)
Program Officer
Okano, Paul
Project Start
2011-09-01
Project End
2016-07-31
Budget Start
2013-08-01
Budget End
2014-07-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$306,229
Indirect Cost
$111,179
Name
Cleveland Clinic Lerner
Department
Other Basic Sciences
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
135781701
City
Cleveland
State
OH
Country
United States
Zip Code
44195
Sweet, Thomas J; Ting, Angela H (2016) WOMEN IN CANCER THEMATIC REVIEW: Diverse functions of DNA methylation: implications for prostate cancer and beyond. Endocr Relat Cancer 23:T169-T178
Bhasin, Jeffrey M; Hu, Bo; Ting, Angela H (2016) MethylAction: detecting differentially methylated regions that distinguish biological subtypes. Nucleic Acids Res 44:106-16
Ting, Angela H (2016) WOMEN IN CANCER PROFILE: Dude, where's my band? Endocr Relat Cancer 23:P33-P35
Bhasin, Jeffrey M; Ting, Angela H (2016) Goldmine integrates information placing genomic ranges into meaningful biological contexts. Nucleic Acids Res 44:5550-6
Sadler, Tammy; Bhasin, Jeffrey M; Xu, Yaomin et al. (2016) Genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation and gene expression defines molecular characteristics of Crohn's disease-associated fibrosis. Clin Epigenetics 8:30
Bhasin, Jeffrey M; Lee, Byron H; Matkin, Lars et al. (2015) Methylome-wide Sequencing Detects DNA Hypermethylation Distinguishing Indolent from Aggressive Prostate Cancer. Cell Rep 13:2135-46
Al-Harbi, Sayer; Choudhary, Gaurav S; Ebron, Jey Sabith et al. (2015) miR-377-dependent BCL-xL regulation drives chemotherapeutic resistance in B-cell lymphoid malignancies. Mol Cancer 14:185
Hu, Ke; Ting, Angela H; Li, Jing (2015) BSPAT: a fast online tool for DNA methylation co-occurrence pattern analysis based on high-throughput bisulfite sequencing data. BMC Bioinformatics 16:220
Hu, Bo; Ji, Yuan; Xu, Yaomin et al. (2013) Screening for SNPs with Allele-Specific Methylation based on Next-Generation Sequencing Data. Stat Biosci 5:179-197
Lee, Byron H; Taylor, Margaret G; Robinet, Peggy et al. (2013) Dysregulation of cholesterol homeostasis in human prostate cancer through loss of ABCA1. Cancer Res 73:1211-8

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