Gosling Sarah B, Arnold Emily L, Adams Lois, Cool Paul, Geraki Kalotina, Kitchen Mark O, Lyburn Iain D, Rogers Keith D, Snow Tim, Stone Nick, Greenwood Charlene E
School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK.
Diamond Light Source, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, OX11 0DE, UK.
Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 29;15(1):14979. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-98692-8.
Prostate cancer remains the most common male cancer; however, treatment regimens remain unclear in some cases due to a lack of agreement in current testing methods. Therefore, there is an increasing need to identify novel biomarkers to better counsel patients about their treatment options. Microcalcifications offer one such avenue of exploration. Microfocus spectroscopy at the i18 beamline at Diamond Light Source was utilised to measure X-ray diffraction and fluorescence maps of calcifications in 10 µm thick formalin fixed paraffin embedded prostate sections. Calcifications predominantly consisted of hydroxyapatite (HAP) and whitlockite (WH). Kendall's Tau statistics showed weak correlations of 'a' and 'c' lattice parameters in HAP with GG (r = - 0.323, p = 3.43 × 10 and r = 0.227, p = 0.011 respectively), and a negative correlation of relative zinc levels in soft tissue (r = - 0.240, p = 0.022) with GG. Negative correlations of the HAP 'a' axis (r = - 0.284, p = 2.17 × 10) and WH 'c' axis (r = - 0.543, p = 2.83 × 10) with pathological stage were also demonstrated. Prostate calcification chemistry has been revealed for the first time to correlate with clinical markers, highlighting the potential of calcifications as biomarkers of prostate cancer.
前列腺癌仍然是最常见的男性癌症；然而，由于目前检测方法存在分歧，某些情况下的治疗方案仍不明确。因此，越来越需要识别新的生物标志物，以便更好地为患者提供治疗选择方面的建议。微钙化提供了这样一条探索途径。利用钻石光源i18光束线的微聚焦光谱仪测量了10微米厚的福尔马林固定石蜡包埋前列腺切片中钙化的X射线衍射图和荧光图。钙化主要由羟基磷灰石（HAP）和白磷钙矿（WH）组成。肯德尔tau统计显示，HAP中“a”和“c”晶格参数与GG存在弱相关性（分别为r = -0.323，p = 3.43×10和r = 0.227，p = 0.011），软组织中相对锌水平与GG呈负相关（r = -0.240，p = 0.022）。还证实了HAP“a”轴（r = -0.284，p = 2.17×10）和WH“c”轴（r = -0.543，p = 2.83×10）与病理分期呈负相关。首次揭示前列腺钙化化学与临床标志物相关，突出了钙化作为前列腺癌生物标志物的潜力。
