Partnership to Improve Prostate Cancer Imaging

A partnership to promote breakthroughs in prostate cancer imaging has been announced by University Hospitals of Cleveland (OH, USA), Siemens Medical Solutions (Erlangen, Germany), and Cytogen Corp. (Princeton, NJ, USA).

Through this partnership, doctors at the University Hospitals of Cleveland are using the Siemens e.cam gamma camera with Flash 3D iterative reconstruction and computed tomography (CT) attenuation correction technology, in combination with the monoclonal antibody agent ProstaScinet from Cytogen. The resulting images are providing major improvements for the diagnosis and staging of metastatic prostate cancer, according to Bruce Sodee, M.D., professor of radiology, Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH, USA), and a specialist in nuclear medicine at University Hospitals.

In their research, Dr. Sodee and his team are imaging the prostate prior to surgery and then confirming their diagnosis through examination of the specimen after the procedure. He reports they are averaging an accuracy of about 90% in the identification of the tumor location through the imaging procedure, as verified by pathology. In the next step, Dr. Sodee plans to image patients prior to their biopsy, to provide targeting for the urologist performing the biopsy. The final step will be to improve scatter correction in the image, which will help to quantitatively identify exactly how much activity is in the tumor.

"This achievement will help tremendously with prostate cancer research and treatment planning,” said Dr. Sodee.




Related Links:
Siemens Medical
Cytogen
University Hospitals of Cleveland