Using EV-Encapsulated RNAs in Blood for Early Identification of Patients with Aggressive Prostate Cancer

The way that cells talk to one another helps prostate cancers to become more aggressive. Cancer cells talk with their neighbours by sending small packages, called extracellular vesicles. These vesicles help the cancer to grow and then spread to other sites around the body. They do this by escaping from the prostate and entering the patients’ blood stream. The vesicles can then exit the blood stream at sites such as bones, lungs and the liver. Once they arrive, the vesicles can act as a Trojan horse. They trick normal cells into making a friendly environment for prostate cancer cells to invade. This results in the disease spreading.

These vesicles contain genetic information (RNAs) which can provide information about the cancer that they came from. By detecting these EV-associated RNAs in samples of blood we can tell if a patient has prostate cancer, and how likely the cancer is to spread.

This would help us to find people at risk of prostate cancer before the disease has chance to spread. It would also help to avoid biopsies and help doctors to select better treatments for these patients. This would greatly improve the lives of patients with prostate cancer.