Prostate Imaging Treatment Initiative Announced

National Cancer Institute
Friday, 25 June 1999

In an effort to stimulate collaborations between academic researchers and industry to develop non-invasive imaging technologies for diagnosing and treating prostate cancer, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is launching a technology development initiative that will fund research at a level of $13.6 million over the next four years. The hope is that this initiative will act as a catalyst to bring academic institutions and companies together to work on what is a complex, multidisciplinary goal.

The ability to diagnose early prostate cancer is not matched by imaging techniques to accurately determine a tumor's location, or markers for aggressiveness. With better imaging, the sparing of normal tissue and controlling damage to normal tissue during treatment are major goals of this initiative.

According to Daniel Sullivan, M.D., associate director of NCI's Diagnostic Imaging Program, Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, "Leaders in the field of prostate cancer treatment, including prominent urologists and radiation oncologists, tell us that they want new and alternative methods for dealing with this disease. Methods that are minimally invasive might avoid complications such as impotence and urinary incontinence, which sometimes arise with current surgical or high beam radiation treatments."

Image-Guided Therapy (IGT) is at the heart of this new initiative. IGT uses images obtained either during or prior to treatment, couples them with high powered computers, sensors, and other technologies, and helps guide more accurate treatments. These techniques have been used extensively for brain surgery but have not yet been optimized for prostate cancer.

Among the goals of the initiative are the measurement of the biological characteristics and local extent of the disease using alternative and novel imaging methods, techniques for improved image-guided biopsy and staging, identification of aggressive tumors by metabolic or other methods, and ways of navigation and control of IGT.

There are opportunities for significant advances in IGT because of technological breakthroughs in imaging. Some of the therapeutic techniques already in the pipeline that could get a major push with this initiative are hyperthermia, cryosurgery, laser therapy, and focused ultrasound and microwave imaging.

For more information, or to contact National Cancer Institute, see their website at: www.cancer.gov