Today’s news items include coverage of:
- A second report on BMI and pathologic outcomes in European patients
- Various research reports on early stage scientific developments
- A new, template-based form of prostate cancer biopsy technology
Following up on a report mentioned in yesterday’s news update, a second report from Germany (by Isbarn et al.) confirms that body mass index (BMI) is not an independent predictor of worse pathologic outcomes among overweight or obese men. This study is based on > 1,500 consecutive patients treated in Hamburg. The unresolved question is then, why are the data different for European men as opposed to obese men in North America?
Several recent papers have addressed a variety of new technical issues in the field of prostate cancer research, as follows: Gupta et al. have published data on the value of plasma hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor levels in predicting risk for lymph node metastasis in patients with apparently localized prostate cancer. Castellano et al. have investigated the relationship between activation of the osteopontin/matrix metalloproteinase-9 pathway and prostate cancer progression. Udayakumar et al. have reported that the investigational antisense compound AS-MDM2 enhances apoptosis and can help to sensitizes androgen-dependent and androgen-independent prostate cancer cells to radiation.
Envisioneering Medical Technologies has issues a media release about a template-based form of prostate biopsy planning system called TargetScan. The media release references an article by Megwalu et al. That article concludes that, “Template-guided biopsy potentially produces a higher cancer detection rate and more accurate assessment of grade. Prostatectomy specimens did not have a high rate of pathologically insignificant disease.” The second conclusion reads to us like a way to NOT say “Prostatectomy specimens had a high rate of pathologicially significant disease.”
Filed under: Diagnosis, Drugs in development, Management, Treatment Tagged: | biopsy, BMI, outcomes, research, TargetScan
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Thanks for providing such helpful information about prostate cancer.
There is more information available about the TargetScan technology on the Asia’s Best Doctors web site. That site also contains a video presentation.