While researching bladder cancer, Professor Colin Cooper at the Institute of Cancer Research found that a gene called E2F3 was overexpressed in bladder cancer and this was associated with aggressive disease. A protein produced by the E2F3 gene was also overexpressed at high levels in 67 per cent of prostate cancer, while no staining was present in normal healthy prostate cells.
Patients with prostate cancers that overexpressed E2F3 have a worse prognosis, and the higher the level of E2F3 protein in the cancer the poorer the patient survival. Research is now underway to translate this finding into a test in the hope that patients with aggressive early cancers can be identified.
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