A local cancer support community held an informative session Tuesday night about
some newer developments in prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment. The doctor's explanations were very clear, and he made it accessible to lay persons rather well.
Two things stood out.
First:
The idea of the Fusion ultrasound/MRI biopsy finally makes sense. He said MRI-guided biopsy is a very slow and problematic process. Ultrasound on the other hand is quick and relatively inexpensive. He then showed a recorded video of the display of a
"UroNav" fusion biopsy system. In practice, it's really cool!
They record an MRI image of the prostate in a normal manner. Then, a 3D model, built from the slices of the MRI images, is later overlaid in real time with the ultrasound biopsy probe's image, synchronized in real time, or "fused". As he moves the ultrasound probe around, its blurry slice image also appears to slice the MRI, shown in high detail. It's as if he has the MRI doing real-time slicing, but it's actually just the ultrasound probe. Seeing that combined image, it suddenly all made sense. That way they can see the MRI-defined tumor, and target it accurately for biopsy.
Second:
A new ablation technology in early trials using gold-plated nanospheres and laser light. They're really tiny, far smaller than a red blood cell (diagram made it look like a golf ball next to a queen-size mattress). They're injected in the bloodstream, travelling around the body. A tumor's crazy blood vessels are poorly constructed with a lot of leakage between the cells, as windows in the walls. The nanospheres thus leak into and around the tumor.
Then they go in with a laser at a specific frequency. It is intense, but won't hurt normal tissue. The light interacts with the nanospheres, causing heating and tissue damage. So the damage only happens in and immediately around the tumor tissue where the spheres are. The laser is inserted in hollow needles into the prostate, much like HDR brachytherapy. So they can control right where they apply the laser energy. It's a "photodynamic" treatment, with the nanospheres acting as an activating agent.
Over a couple of days, the nanospheres are eventually removed by the body's normal waste elimination systems. This is early in trials, but very promising.
One of the more interesting talks I've ever been to!