Molecular Characterization of Indolent Prostate Cancer

Indolent prostate cancers that pose very low risk to aged men occur frequently and may be detected at biopsy, leading to the contemporary problem of prostate cancer over-diagnosis and over-treatment. The objective of the project is to define and characterize indolent prostate cancer using genomic approaches in the clinically relevant context of a cohort meeting the entry criteria for active surveillance. During the funding period, we collaborated with urologists and pathologists involved in the active surveillance program, and focused on evaluation of technical feasibility, acquisition of specimen resources, and optimization of the workflow. While this exploratory work established that high quality nucleic acid molecules can be extracted from select tumor lesions, comprehensive analysis of a large cohort of men diagnosed with very low risk prostate cancer may require further technical optimization as well as optimization of clinical workflow to ensure compatibility with high-throughput studies of small pathological lesions.