Evaluation of AR, AR-V7, and p160 family as biomarkers for prostate cancer: insights into the clinical significance and disease progression

Purpose To assess the role of the p160 family, AR, and AR-V7 in different initial presentations of prostate cancer and their association with clinical endpoints related to tumor progression. Methods The study sample comprises 155 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy and 11 healthy peripheral zone biopsies as the control group. Gene expression was quantified by qPCR from the tissue specimens. The statistical analysis investigated correlations between gene expression levels, associations with disease presence, and clinicopathological features. Additionally, ROC curves were applied for distinct PCa presentations, and time-to-event analysis was used for clinical endpoints. Results The AR-V7 diagnostic performance for any PCa yielded an AUC of 0.77 ( p < 0.05). For locally advanced PCa, the AR-V7 AUC was 0.65 ( p < 0.05). Moreover, the metastasis group had a higher expression of SRC-1 than the non-metastatic group ( p < 0.05), showing a shorter time to metastasis in the over-expressed group ( p = 0.005). Patients with disease recurrence had super-expression of AR levels ( p < 0.0005), with a shorter time-to-recurrence in the super-expression group ( p < 0.0001). Conclusion Upregulation of SRC-1 indicates a higher risk of progression to metastatic disease in a shorter period, which warrants further research to be applied as a clinical tool. Additionally, AR may be used as a predictor for PCa recurrence. Furthermore, AR-V7 may be helpful as a diagnostic tool for PCa and locally advanced cancer, comparable with other investigated tools.