Prostate cancer gets its first predictive biomarker.

It’s about time prostate cancer joined the club. The HSD3B1 gene has been found to predict response to androgen deprivation therapy in metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. This gene encodes an enzyme which catalyzes androgen precursors to DHT. Retrospective genotyping of 102 prospectively collected samples demonstrated a 10% frequency of homozygous HSD3B1 allele variant which was associated with a progression free survival of 11 vs. 21 months when compared to their homozygous HSD3B1 wildtype counterparts, even when accounting for Gleason score and PSA. This predictive ability is in contrast to the currently-available genomic prognostic tools such as the Oncotype DX and Decipher tests. Who would have predicted prostate cancer would take so long to jump on the biomarker band wagon.