In mouse study, PSA ?tracer? showed where can?cer might spread, but research in humans needed.
SATURDAY, March 31 (Health?Day News) ? A non?in?va?sive scan might some?day help doc?tors track the progress of prostate can?cer and help guide treat?ment, researchers report.
The imag?ing tool, known as a prostate cancer-specific radio?tracer, has so far only been tested suc?cess?fully in mice. But a team from Memo?r?ial Sloan-Kettering Can?cer Cen?ter in New York City said the tech?nol?ogy could help iden?tify cases where prostate can?cer has spread to the?bone.
Radio?trac?ers work by inject?ing a small amount of a com?pound tagged with a radionu?clide into patients. Using positron emis?sion tomog?ra?phy ? also known as a PET scan ? doc?tors are then able to bet?ter visu?al?ize tumors and tumor spread.
In stud?ies involv?ing mice with prostate can?cer, the researchers had the radio?tracer hone in on prostate-specific anti?gen (PSA), the same prostate can?cer marker used in the PSA test. They found that the PSA grav?i?tated to tis?sues con?tain?ing prostate can?cer that had already grown resis?tant to stan?dard hormone-based therapies.
The study also revealed the radio?tracer could help iden?tify cases where prostate can?cer had spread to the bone. The researchers pointed out tra?di?tional bone scans are unable to dif?fer?en?ti?ate between malig?nant and non?ma?lig?nant lesions.
The find?ings were to be pre?sented Sat?ur?day at the Amer?i?can Asso?ci?a?tion for Can?cer Research annual meet?ing in Chicago, and are also being pub?lished in Can?cer Dis?cov?ery.
If used on peo?ple, the researchers claimed that the radio?tracer might some?day help doc?tors ?per?son?al?ize? treat?ment strate?gies for prostate can?cer and bet?ter man?age the disease.
?The ulti?mate goal is to be able to pre?dict the response of patients to new and exist?ing ther?a?pies at an early stage, thereby per?son?al?iz?ing their treat?ment and improv?ing out?comes,? Michael J. Evans, research fel?low in the Human Oncol?ogy and Patho?gen?e?sis Pro?gram at Memo?r?ial Sloan-Kettering Can?cer Cen?ter, explained in meet?ing news release.
Encour?aged by their find?ings, the study?s authors said they hope to begin a human trial next?year.
Two prostate can?cer experts said the tool, if borne out in patients, could prove very useful.
Dr. Michael Schwartz is direc?tor of laparoscopy and min?i?mally inva?sive surgery at North Shore-LIJ Health Sys?tem in Lake Suc?cess, N.Y. He noted that, as of now, doc?tors typ?i?cally rely on results of the PSA blood test and/or stan?dard diag?nos?tic scans to help guide treat?ment decisions.
Both meth?ods have their lim?its and, ?while this study is very pre?lim?i?nary, if this radio?tracer tech?nol?ogy can prove to detect very early recur?rence or metas?ta?sis in human patients, it could become extremely use?ful in either the pre? or post-treatment set?ting in select?ing a treat?ment algo?rithm,? Schwartz said. ?It also may help reduce the need for biopsy of pos?si?ble metasta?tic lesions.?
Dr. Erik Gol?uboff, an attend?ing urol?o?gist at Beth Israel Med?ical Cen?ter, New York City, agreed that, ?this is an excit?ing study using a novel radio?tracer to detect PSA-expressing tis?sues through?out the?body.?
He believes that the new tool?s ?great?est strength would be in mon?i?tor?ing changes in PSA expres?sion in tis?sues as a result of var?i?ous treat?ments. If a treat?ment showed a marked change, it could con?tinue to be used in that patient, hence ?per?son?al?ized? med?i?cine. If a spe?cific change did not occur, that treat?ment could be aban?doned and another tried instead. Since these changes could not be detected based on a PSA blood test alone, this new test would be very help?ful in deter?min?ing early on which ther?apy to choose in a given patient.?
How?ever, Gol?uboff also noted that research from animal-based stud?ies does not always pan out in humans and ?fur?ther, larger stud?ies are of course required to con?firm these findings.?
More infor?ma?tion
The U.S. National Can?cer Insti?tute pro?vides more infor?ma?tion on prostate can?cer.
SOURCE: Michael J. Schwartz, M.D., direc?tor, laparoscopy and min?i?mally inva?sive surgery, Arthur Smith Insti?tute for Urol?ogy, North Shore-LIJ Health Sys?tem, Lake Suc?cess, N.Y.; Erik T. Gol?uboff, M.D., attend?ing urol?o?gist, Uro?logic Oncol?ogy, Beth Israel Med?ical Cen?ter, New York City; The Amer?i?can Asso?ci?a?tion for Can?cer Research, news release, March 31,?2012
Copy?right ? 2012 Health?Day. All rights reserved.
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