Upregulation of urinary thromboxane B2 may be a new marker of aggressive prostate cancer in African American men, a group that bears a disproportionately high burden of lethal prostate cancer.
Thromboxane A2 (TXA2) is a platelet- and cyclooxygenase-derived eicosanoid that has been linked to metastasis. Dr. Stefan Ambs and colleagues with the National Cancer Institute investigated the role of TXA2 in the development of lethal prostate cancer in African American (AA) and European American (EA) men.
Using mass-spectrometry, they measured urinary 11-dehydrothromboxane B2 (TXB2), a stable metabolite of TXA2, in 977 men with prostate cancer (490 AA and 487 EA) and 1,022 controls (479 AA and 543 EA). During a median follow-up of 8.4 years, 246 men with prostate cancer died.
Source: Reuters Health