Realizing the Translational Potential of Telomere Length Variation as a Tissue Based Prognostic Marker for Prostate Cancer
Abstract
We are testing, in prospective studies from Hopkins (Brady) and Harvard (PHS, HPFS), whether the combination of telomere length variability in prostate cancer cells and short telomere length in cancer-associated stromal cells is an independent prognostic indicator of poor prostate cancer outcome. In Year 4, we determined that the criteria we defined in Year 3 support that we now have a sufficiently optimized protocol for semi-automated slide scanning and multi-channel acquisition of fluorescent images using the Tissue FAXS Plus microscopy workstation and TissueFAXS 4.0 software (Tissue Gnostics). We documented within- and between-operator reliability indetermination of telomere length is sufficient for cancer and cancer associated stromal cells, and determined that some within-operator variability is due to biological variability rather than method or operator variability. We will disseminate the method and the reliability via publication (in preparation). To make this test viable as a clinical tool, we continue to make refinements to achieve full automation of the method to distinguish among cell types to include/exclude for the telomere biomarker. We have begun Tasks 5, 6, and 7.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1031094
Entities
People
- Elizabeth A Platz
Organizations
- Johns Hopkins University