title: The usefulness of phosphorylated-signal transduction and activators of transcription 3 in detecting prostate cancer from negative biopsies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To avoid the misdiagnosis of prostate cancer (PCA), many patients receive repeated biopsies, despite receiving prior negative biopsies for PCA. Signal transduction and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3), a component of the JAK-STAT signaling pathway, can be activated by tyrosine phosphorylation as P-STAT3 and involved in the regulation of cellular growth, survival and oncogenesis. We aimed to assess the reliability of detecting PCA from the expression of P-STAT3 in prostate tissue previously designated as a negative biopsy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prostate tissues were obtained from the biopsies of 52 patients with localized PCA as well as from the biopsies of 80 patients free of PCA. Expression of P-STAT3 in these specimens was examined by immunohistochemical staining (IHC) and used to distinguish tissue with PCA from tissue designated as benign during a biopsy procedure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  P-STAT3 staining intensities in all samples (initial negative biopsies, cancer positive cores and other negative cores from the same-batch biopsies) of PCA patients was significantly higher than that of benign patients (F = 23.664, P < 0.001). Analysis of the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve showed that the area under curve (AUC) for P-STAT3 staining was 0.785. When positive immuno-labeling of P-STAT3 in samples from initial biopsies was used as a marker for PCA, it showed relatively high sensitivity (80.8%) and specificity (76.3%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  IHC of P-STAT3 could be utilized to detect PCA patients with initial negative biopsies. As a result, it can be a potential adjunctive tool for current PCA diagnostic programs. P-STAT3 can predict the onset of PCA up to 40 months earlier than currently used diagnostic approaches.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, The Chinese PLA 252 Hospital, 071000 Baoding, Hebei Province, PR China.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Y D
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: X L
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: X X
authors.initials: XX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: J Q
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Gao
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010766:Phosphorylation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D012372:ROC Curve; D050796:STAT3 Transcription Factor / Q000378:metabolism*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D050796:STAT3 Transcription Factor; C494086:STAT3 protein, human