Fluorescent biomarker illuminates prostate cancer cells in ProMOTE study
Scientists have conducted the first-in-man trial of a fluorescent prostate-cancer targeting molecule that can visualize clusters of cancer cells.
The effective eradication of prostate cancer cells is essential in preventing cancer re-growth. Scientists from the University of Oxford, Oxford University Hospitals and Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (all UK) have manufactured a fluorescent biomarker to visualize cancerous tissue.
The glowing marker is a combination of a fluorescent dye and targeting molecule, termed IR800-IAB2M which locates prostate cancer cells by binding to Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) found on the outer surface of cancer cells. The marker is adapted from an antibody and is highly specific to PSMA preventing off-target effects. This visualization method also allows for the detection of cancerous cells that have spread and are not immediately visible to the naked eye. Not only preventing relapse but also greatly reducing severe post-operative side effects.
“Surgery can effectively cure cancers when they are removed at an early stage. But, in those early stages, it’s near impossible to tell by eye which cancers have spread locally and which have not. We need better tools to spot cancers which have started to spread further. The combined marker dye and imaging system that this research has developed could fundamentally transform how we treat prostate cancer in the future,” stated Iain Foulkes, Executive Director of Research and Innovation at Cancer Research (UK).
In total 23 male patients, diagnosed with prostate cancer, took part in the ProMOTE study where the fluorescent biomarker was injected prior to radical prostatectomy. An imagining system was utilized to highlight any glowing regions of growth. Six cases were presented in detail, with overall sensitivity and specificity in detecting non-lymph-node extra-prostatic cancer tissue reported as 100% and 65% respectively, and 64% and 64% for lymph node positivity. The promising initial results pave the way for further studies with a much larger study population.
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“With this technique, we can strip all the cancer away, including the cells that have spread from the tumor which could give it the chance to come back later. It also allows us to preserve as much of the healthy structures around the prostate as we can, to reduce unnecessary life-changing side-effects like incontinence and erectile dysfunction,” explained lead study author Freddie Hamdy (University of Oxford, UK).