Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men. Currently, prostate cancer screening is based on digital rectal examination and determination of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood levels: high levels of this protein are associated with an increased risk of having this tumor. From the implementation of this screening method, the number of deaths has been significantly reduced, but it still has certain limitations. For instance, in many cases, elevated PSA values may be due to other prostate diseases such as infection, inflammation or benign prostate hyperplasia, among others, Therefore, the PSA test can lead to an overdiagnosis of this tumor, resulting in numerous unnecessary biopsies. In addition, PSA levels do not correlate with tumor aggressiveness, survival, or response to different treatments, leading to excessive treatments of non-aggressive tumors. In this context, more precise non-invasive biomarkers are needed to complement and optimize prostate cancer screening.
Previous publications have shown that, in prostate tumors, there is a significant alteration in small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) levels, molecules that do not code proteins but still regulate gene expression. These include miRNAs and tsRNAs, both of which have great potential as biomarkers for prostate cancer. Now, a recent study by IDIBELL researchers confirms the usefulness of semen tsRNAs as biomarkers for prostate cancer.
“In previous studies we had developed tests based on semen levels of miRNAs as biomarkers for prostate cancer; now we prove that altered levels of tsRNAs in the tumor can also be detected and quantified in these semen samples,” says Dr. Sara Larriba, principal investigator in molecular genetics of male infertility and urogenital diseases at IDIBELL and leader of this study, carried out in collaboration with the Urology Service of the Bellvitge University Hospital, the Andrology Service of the Puigvert Foundation and the High Content Genomics and Bioinformatics Unit of the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute. Thus, the researchers are convinced that semen can be considered a valuable source of information not only for male fertility but also for other pathologies that affect reproductive system organs such as the prostate.
To carry out this analysis, Adriana Ferre-Giraldo, IDIBELL researcher and main author of the work, explains that “from large-scale sequencing studies, we selected different candidate tsRNAs that could reflect the health of the prostate gland and then validate them in semen. We believe that models based on semen tsRNAs as non-invasive biomarkers would improve the clinical diagnosis of prostate cancer when combined with PSA analyses.”
In conclusion, the combination of both analyses could constitute a more efficient approach for the non-invasive detection of prostate cancer, complementing current diagnostic tools, identifying only clinically significant cases and thus avoiding overdiagnosis and unnecessary biopsies. In addition, the availability and implementation of such biomarkers would provide a more accurate prognosis of the disease, improving the safety in discriminating between indolent and more aggressive tumors.
The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) is a biomedical research center created in 2004. It is participated by the Bellvitge University Hospital and the Viladecans Hospital of the Catalan Institute of Health, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the University of Barcelona and the City Council of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.
IDIBELL is a member of the Campus of International Excellence of the University of Barcelona HUBc and is part of the CERCA institution of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In 2009 it became one of the first five Spanish research centers accredited as a health research institute by the Carlos III Health Institute. In addition, it is part of the “HR Excellence in Research” program of the European Union and is a member of EATRIS and REGIC. Since 2018, IDIBELL has been an Accredited Center of the AECC Scientific Foundation (FCAECC).