Researcher leads NCI grant to develop urine test to lessen need for invasive biopsies in prostate cancer detection

Sanoj Punnen, M.D., co-chair of the Genitourinary Site Disease Group at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and associate professor and vice chair of research, Desai Sethi Urology Institute, at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, is leading a $2.5 million, five-year National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant to explore a new way to noninvasively detect prostate cancer.

Dr. Punnen will work with co-PIs Alan Pollack, M.D., Ph.D., chair and professor of radiation oncology, and Sandra M. Gaston, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of the Molecular Biomarkers Analytic Laboratory in radiation oncology at Sylvester. The team will study small extracellular vesicles called exosomes as a promising new prostate cancer biomarker. Cancer cells release exosomes into body fluids, making it possible to extract them from blood and urine. These exosomes carry valuable molecular information from their parent tumors, including RNA and DNA, which the investigators hope to use to better estimate the risk of prostate cancer.

Improving Exosome-Based Test for Prostate CancerDesai Sethi and Sylvester researchers are collaborating with Exosome Diagnostics, a manufacturer in the field of exosome extraction and analyses that produces a commercially available exosome-based test for prostate cancer detection.

To do this, they will use information and specimens from an ongoing NCI-funded clinical trial (MDSelect, NCT04240327) of 250 men being evaluated for prostate cancer, in which researchers collect prostate biopsy tissue, blood and urine samples.

The hypothesis is that by selecting for exosomes that are tagged with a cell surface protein called “prostate specific membrane antigen” (PSMA), they will collect exosomes that are specifically secreted from prostate cancer cells, which would provide more accurate prostate cancer risk evaluation. Dr. Punnen and colleagues will test the hypothesis in the ongoing MDSelect trial he is leading. The goal is to develop and validate a novel, non-invasive, exosome-based signature to enhance the accuracy of detecting clinically significant prostate cancer.

University of Miami Health System, Miller School of Medicine release on Newswise