Prostate cancer

The aim of the Integrated Genome Research Project (IG) Prostate Cancer was to utilize the high-throughput technologies that were established within the NGFN towards an improved clinical management of prostate cancer. In order to create the critical mass and synergies required to achieve substantial improvements in this field, we joined the forces of internationally renowned partners in molecular genome analysis, urology, and pathology.
The IG Prostate Cancer covered the entire workflow from the identification of novel molecular marker signatures to data validation in large-scale retrospective analyses as well as a prospective clinical study. The aim was to generate novel validated molecular markers for improving the detection of tumors and for assessing the risk of cancer progression. We performed in-depth functional analysis of biomarkers from cell lines up to the level of mammalian model organisms. With the comprehensive understanding of gene functions enabled by experimental data and bioinformatic network generation and data modeling, the results were expected to deliver novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for patient treatment.
The screening experiments in 130 tumor- and normal tissue samples were successfully finished in all subprojects. We identified a large number of novel tumor-relevant genetic alterations, including chromosomal deletions (TP2), aberrant DNA methylation (TP4), differentially expressed genes and miRNAs (TP5) and deregulated proteins and signal transduction pathways (TP6,9). Validation experiments and functional studies gave clues as to the biological consequences of these changes in vitro. Integrative analyses of different molecular data sets (TP13) were performed in order to investigate the added value of data integration for the understanding of the processes driving prostate cancer.

Latest results can be found in detail in the descriptions of the subprojects