The role of metastasis-associated protein 1 in prostate cancer progression

Distinguishing aggressive prostate cancer from indolent disease represents an important clinical challenge, as current therapy requires over treating men with prostate cancer to prevent the progression of a few cases. Expression of the metastasis-associated protein 1 (MTA1) has previously been found to be associated with progression to the metastatic state in various cancers. Analyzing DNA microarray data, we found MTA1 to be selectively overexpressed in metastatic prostate cancer compared with clinically localized prostate cancer and benign prostate tissue. These results were validated by demonstrating overexpression of MTA1 in metastatic prostate cancer by immunoblot analysis. MTA1 protein expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry in a broad spectrum of prostate tumors with tissue microarrays containing 1940 tissue cores from 300 cases. Metastatic prostate cancer demonstrated significantly higher mean MTA1 protein expression intensity (score = 3.4/4) and percentage of tissue cores staining positive for MTA1 (83%) compared with clinically localized prostate cancer (score = 2.8/4, 63% positive cores) or benign prostate tissue (score = 1.5/4, 25% positive cores) with a mean difference of 0.54 and 1.84, respectively (P < 0.00001 for both). Paradoxically, for localized disease, higher MTA1 protein expression was associated with lower rates of prostate specific antigen recurrence after radical prostatectomy for localized disease. In summary, this study identified an association of MTA1 expression and prostate cancer progression.