At the Society of Clinical Medicine’s 57th Annual Meeting there was a report of a clinical trial using a new molecular imaging agent could improve diagnosis of recurrent prostate cancer.
“Despite definitive treatment, about 30 percent of prostate cancers recur,” said David Schuster, M.D., director of the division of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging and assistant professor of radiology at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Ga. “This troubling statistic led our research team to diligently work on developing new techniques to more effectively detect and diagnose recurrent prostate tumors and associated cancers that have spread to nearby tissues and organs.”
According to the authors, a radio-tracer known as anti-18F-FACBC could be used to effectively and non-invasively detect and differentiate tumors recurring in the prostate and metastatic cancers that develop, most notably in the surrounding lymph nodes. “This may lead to custom-tailored treatments for prostate cancer patients that cater to their specific tumor type and progression of disease,” added Schuster.
Dr. Mark Goodman at Emory University developed this new imaging agent. It consists of a fluorine-based radioisotope paired with a synthetic amino-acid (anti-18F-FACBC).
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. All cells have a system that controls the absorption of amino acids which allows the cells to grow. The researchers found that anti-18F-FACBC is aggressiv