Prostate Cancer Pathology Resource Network

Background: The goal of the Prostate Cancer Biorepository Network (PCBN) is to develop a biorepository with high-quality, well-annotated specimens obtained in a systematic, reproducible fashion using optimized and 15 standardized protocols, and an infrastructure to facilitate the growth of the resource and its wide usage by the prostate cancer research community. An emerging area of concern in the field of prostate cancer biobanking is an apparent shift in the proportion of surgical procedures performed for prostate cancer treatment from radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) to robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP). Our study aimed to determine the potential impact of the RALP procedure on the detection of known prostate cancer biomarkers, and the subsequent suitability of RALP-derived specimens for prostate cancer biomarker studies. Methods: DNA and RNA were extracted from RRP and RALP specimens. Quality assessment was conducted using spectrophotometric analysis and RNA was analyzed for RNA integrity number (RIN) and by real-time reverse-transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) for racemase, hepsin, ERG, TMPRSS2-ERG gene fusions and the microRNAs miR-26a, miR-26b, miR-141 and miR-221. Results: We demonstrate that extraction of derivatives from frozen tissues from RRP and RALP specimens yields samples of equally high quality as assessed by spectrophotometric and RIN analysis. Likewise, expression levels of genes analyzed by qRT-PCR did not differ between RRP and RALP-derived tissues. Conclusions: Our studies analyzing the differential expression of tumor-associated biomarkers in RRP versus RALP-derived specimens indicate that samples obtained from RALP specimens are suitable for prostate cancer biomarker studies – an important finding given the current shift in surgical procedures for prostate cancer treatment.