Abstract 2235: Prostatic fatty acids correlate with the progression and racial disparity of prostate cancer
Authors: Zhou Xinchun , Mao Jinghe , Mei Hao , Brown Timera , Agee Joshua , Bigler Steven , Welti Ruth 
Published: August 2018

Objectives: This study is aimed to correlate the levels of prostatic fatty acids with the pathogenesis, progression and racial disparity of prostate cancer (PCa).

Methods: Total fatty acids (TFA) and free fatty acids (FFA) were measured in 26 fresh frozen PCa tissues from 13 African American (AA) and 13 Caucasian American (CA) patients, and 21 benign prostatic tissues (BPT) from 12 AA and 9 CA men by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, respectively.

Results: In all populations, TFA in total was significantly higher in PCa than in ABP (1.8-fold, p=0.023). Saturated TFA (STFA) was 1.6-fold higher (p=0.024), mono-unsaturated TFA (MUTFA) was 1.9-fold higher (p=0.027), and poly-unsaturated TFA (PUTFA) was 2.1-fold higher (p=0.045) in PCa than in BPT. Six out of 16 individual TFA species were significantly higher in PCa than in BPT. Three out of 24 TFA parameters were significantly higher in high than in low grade PCa; and six out of 24 TFA parameters were significantly higher in high than low stage PCa. FFA in total was significantly higher in PCa than in BPT (1.3-fold, p=0.038). Saturated FFA (SFFA) in total was 1.2-fold higher (p=0.24), mono-unsaturated FFA (MUFFA) in total was 1.7-fold higher (p=0.027), and poly-unsaturated FFA (PUFFA) in total was 1.7-fold higher (p=0.045) in PCa than in BPT. Four out of 10 FFA species were significantly higher in PCa than in BPT. In stratified populations, the difference of TFA in total was not significant between AA PCa and AA BPT (p=0.71), but it was significantly higher in CA PCa than in CA BPT (2.7-fold, p=0.003). There were only 2 out of 16 TFA species in AA PCa significantly higher than in AA BPT, whereas 11 out of 16 TFA species in CA PCa significantly higher than in CA BPT. The differences in all groups of TFAs, including STFA, MSTFA, PUTFA, n-3, n-6 and n-9 TFA were not significant between AA PCa and AA BPT, however they were all significantly higher in CA PCa than in CA BPT. Out of 24 fatty acid parameters, two in AA population but 14 in CA population were significantly higher in high than low grade PCa, and one in AA population but 15 in CA population were significantly higher in high than low stage PCa. None of 14 FFA parameters were significantly different between AA PCa and AA BPT, but 10 of those were significantly higher in CA PCa than in CA BPT. Intriguingly, TFA in total, STFA, MUTFA, PUTFA, n-3TFA, n-6 TFA, n-9 TFA and ratio of n-6 to n-3 were all higher in AA BPT than CA BPT, but all lower in AA PCa than in CA PCa.

Conclusion: This study suggests that increasing in majority of prostatic fatty acids (both TFA and FFA) is risk for pathogenesis and progression of PCa. Higher levels of prostatic fatty acids in BPT are greater risk for PCa pathogenesis in AA men, whereas higher levels of prostatic fatty acids contribute more to the progression of PCa in CA men.

Citation Format: Xinchun Zhou, Jinghe Mao, Hao Mei, Timera Brown, Joshua Agee, Steven Bigler, Ruth Welti. Prostatic fatty acids correlate with the progression and racial disparity of prostate cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2235.