Complain about a product or service

Severe Form of Enlarged Prostate Disease Discovered

February 16, 2007

• Study Links Prostate Cancer to Single Rogue Cell • PSA Testing May Be Unnecessary for Some Older Men • Compound Can Identify Prostate Cancer • Improved PSA Tests May Better Determine Prostate Cancer Risk • Vitamins Don't Cut Prostate Cancer Risk • Aspirin May Lower PSA Levels in Men • FDA Approves New Overactive Bladder Drug • New Prostate Surgical Techniques Often "Over-Promoted" • Feds Approve Drug for Enlarged Prostate • New Prostate Cancer Treatment Shows Promise • Broccoli Reduces Prostate Cancer Risk, Study Finds • Celebrex-Lipitor Combo May Halt Prostate Cancer • Exercise May Speed Prostate Tumor Growth • Soy Compound May Halt Spread of Prostate Cancer • Obesity Linked to Higher Prostate Cancer Mortality • Red Wine May Fight Prostate Cancer • Enlarged Prostate Doesn't Mean Cancer • Hopkins Researchers Claim Better Blood Test for Prostate Cancer • Severe Form of Enlarged Prostate Disease Discovered • Tomato-Broccoli Combo Can Help Shrink Prostate Cancers • Weight Gain Increases Risk of Dying from Prostate Cancer • Smoking Linked to Complications in Prostate Cancer Treatment • Newer Approach Urged in Screening for Aggressive Prostate Cancer • Aspirin May Prevent or Delay Enlarged Prostate • Hopkins Researchers Find Better Blood Test for Prostate Cancer • Prostate Radiation May Cause Problems Later • New Test Detects Prostate Cancer Spread Earlier • Castration May Be Advised in Advanced Prostate Cancer • Radiation Therapy May Be Best for Younger Prostate Cancer Patients • Study Recommends More Prostate Biopsies • Delayed Surgery May Be OK for Some Prostate Cancer Patients • Study: PSA Test Doesn't Improve Prostate Cancer Survival Rate • Prostate Cancer Genes Identified • Annual Prostate Cancer Screening Test Appears to Save Lives • FDA Panel Rejects Prostate Cancer Pill • PSA Test Still Useful, Hopkins Study Finds • No "Normal" PSA Level: Study • New Prostate Cancer Test Shows Promise • Lifestyle and Diet May Stop or Reverse Prostate Cancer Progression

Millions of middle-aged and older men experience the symptoms of an enlarged prostate multiple times during the day and night.

What they may not know is that the disease known as BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia), marked by urgency and frequent urination, is not one but at least a pair of disorders, and that one of the pair tied to a newly-identified gene has far more serious implications.

In a study published in the February issue of the Journal of Urology, researchers at Johns Hopkins reported finding substantially higher levels of a protein made by a gene known as JM-27 in men whose BPH is more severe and more likely to lead to bladder-related complications if left untreated.

Although BPH affects the prostate, the resulting symptoms are often called "lower urinary tract symptoms," or LUTS. These symptoms reflect not only the direct effects of the prostate on urinary flow and urgency, but functional changes in the bladder that result from the increased pressure.

The Hopkins team, lead by Robert Getzenberg, Ph.D., also developed a blood test that detects the JM-27 protein in men with severe symptoms. The JM-27 diagnostic test, if eventually approved by the FDA, could be used to identify men with this highly symptomatic form of the disease early, before there is any damage to the bladder or urinary tract.

"Our experiments show that the expression of this marker is related to the presence of the severe form of BPH and not to the size of the prostate or to the presence or risk of prostate cancer," says Getzenberg.

"What we*re looking at is two diseases: BPH that produces more mild symptoms and is less likely to lead to bladder and other urinary tract damage, and BPH that is highly symptomatic with increased potential to do damage to the bladder."

In their latest study, Getzenberg and his team tested blood samples taken from 85 men. Twenty-nine had either no detectable BPH symptoms or mild ones, 39 experienced more marked symptoms of the disease, and 17 had confirmed prostate cancer.

The blood of all patients was not only screened for the presence of the JM-27 protein, but also analyzed to determine exactly how much JM-27 was in the bloodstream of each man. Researchers found a "statistically significant" difference in the levels of JM-27 in the men who were either completely asymptomatic or had mild symptoms of BPH.

Men with higher levels of JM-27 had the less severe form of BPH, whereas men with low levels of JM-27 had the worse form of the disease based on their symptoms. And the presence of prostate cancer did not throw these results off; in other words, even in these men, it could be determined, based on their levels of JM-27, whether they suffered from the mild or severe form of BPH.

Getzenberg says the new biomarker test detects approximately 90 percent of the men with the severe form of BPH and only incorrectly classifies men as having this form of the disease in 23 percent of the cases.

Current medical therapy for men who suffer from BPH is with two classes of drugs: alpha-blockers, which relax the prostate and 5-alpha reductase inhibitors, which help to shrink it. Forms of BPH that do not respond to medical therapies frequently require surgical intervention.

"The next step is to figure out which drugs work best on which form of the disease as differentiated by JM-27," Getzenberg says.

The incidence of BPH is estimated to equal the age of the men. Therefore, 50 percent of men in their 50s have the disease, and this increases to 80 percent for those in their 80s.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Share		Follow us on Twitter.