| Hormone therapy used as a treatment for prostate cancer (PC) may be indicated for individuals with tumor progression. This therapy may be effective initially, however, all patients will eventually become resistant. If hormone therapy is determined a priori to be less effective for certain patients, then an alternative treatment regimen that eliminates unnecessary and/or ineffective procedures could more efficiently benefit the patient. Over-expressed interleukin-6 and antibodies to PSA produced by the humoral response may indicate a poor prognosis in PC patients. This study attempted to demonstrate a novel approach to determine PC patient prognosis by testing patient serum for antibodies to PSA using flow cytometry and determining the predisposition of those patients to high interleukin-6 production by DNA analysis. A flow cytometry assay using micro-beads to test for anti-PSA was successfully developed and this reproducible assay could be used to test PC patients in the future. |
