The Use Of P-STAT3 In The Early Diagnosis Of Prostate Cancer

Objective: To investigate the expression of P-STAT3 (Phosphorylated-signal transduction and activators of transcription 3) proteins in human prostate tissue which received from patients being carried out repeated biopsies. And consider the usefulness of detecting the expression of P-STAT3 in the early diagnosis of human prostate cancer by IHC (Immunohistory chemistry).Methods: 58 patients who had undergone transrectal ultrasound guided prostate repeated biopsies in our hospital, were involved in this study. First, we collected their total clinical and following-up information, and then divided these patients into several groups. Second, tissue sections were cut from paraffin-embedded prostate biopsy cores of these patients. Third, all of these tissue sections were immunolabeled with a standard IHC protocol. And then we performed the evaluation of results of IHC stain. Last, we carried out a series statistical analysis on these results with the statistical computer program Stata (version 7.0).Results: Firstly, it shows almost total absence of stain in most samples of patients free of prostate cancer. But majority samples clearly show strong P-STAT3 immunolabel which take from patients who suffering form prostate cancer, including typical cores from cancer field, other cores of the same batch biopsy showing no sign of prostate cancer by HE, and the cores from primary negative biopsies. Secondly, compared with samples from patients free of prostate cancer, the stain of anti-P-STAT3 is significantly stronger in samples from primary negative biopsies of malignant patients (p=0.000). And there are hardly overlap for the result of stain between these patients. Last, if P-STAT3 immunolabelling was used for identifying the probability of prostate cancer, then it would show a comparatively high sensitity (82.8%) and specificity (89.7%).Conclusion: 1. The high level expression of P-STAT3 in morphologically normal prostate tissues suggests that activation of STAT3 may be an early event in prostatic epithetlial carcinogensis. 2. The IHC stain for P-STAT3 in prostate biopsy samples could serve as an adjunct to the current diagnostic approach to prostate biopsy for theearly diagnosis of prostate cancer. 3. This method could forecast individuals with prostate cancer as much as 3 years earlier than the current diagnostic approach.