Paradoxically, an expanded study to evaluate the prognostic significance of inhibin alpha subunit expression in men with prostate cancer resulted in a contradictory outcome, whereby an up-regulation of subunit expression was recorded.
The data demonstrate that promoter methylation is associated with downregulation of the INHA gene in prostate cancer cell lines, which is consistent with its tumour suppressive role.
These data provide the first demonstration that promoter hypermethylation and LOH are associated with the inhibin alpha-subunit gene and gene locus in prostate cancer.
These results demonstrate that in contrast to ovarian granulosa cell tumors, inhibin alpha gene expression is down-regulated in poorly differentiated prostate cancer.