Scientists at the Erasmus MC-University Medical Center in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, and Applied Biosystems, have made significant advances in testicular cancer research by identifying and analysing a set of specific microRNA molecular markers that are involved in the development of testicular tumours. The research findings could potentially lead to earlier identification of the disease and new approaches for treating the cancer.
Although testicular cancer is relatively rare in the general population, it is the most common cancer in men between the ages of 15 and 44 years old. A study found that normal and cancerous cells contain distinctly different amounts of molecules called microRNAs. The findings also showed that a tumour’s microRNA expression pattern provides vital information about the malignancy of the tumour. This new information could help clinicians to identify testicular cancer patients more quickly and more accurately, and provide more precise prognoses than current approaches.
"These findings have provided us with a new level of information for understanding the biology of cancer and these will also be applicable to breast, lung, colon and other cancers,” said Prof Leendert Looijenga, group leader within the Department of Pathology at the Erasmus Medical Center.
