UBC
UBC scientists tested the marker in mice with human tumors implants
A preclinical evaluation of a new double-acting marker agent reveals potential not only to help surgeons visualize and plan prostate cancer interventions, but also to provide them with a more consistent and directed guidance during surgery.
A new marker agent uses a single molecule marked with Fluoride-18a common isotope in Positro emission (PET) tomography for diagnostic imaging to help surgeons visualize and plan prostate cancer interventions.
The marker, presented in a recently published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry It also offers an affordable solution, in a single step, which can allow combined, guided surgeries by fluorescence and radiation.
“Precision medicine is increasingly being applied and developed to face sophisticated treatment methods in diseases such as cancer,” he says David M. Perrinresearcher at the University of British Columbia and the main author of the article, in a university statement.
“Our marker provides high resolution visual guidance, but would also allow a surgeon Using portable geiger probes to hear areas of high radiation density that would accumulate in non -immediately visible carcinogenous tissue – be a lymph node, a distant metastasis or a local invasion, such as the gut or colon, ”he adds.
The marker He goes and calls himself to PSMAspecific membrane antigen of the prostate, highly expressed on the surface of prostate cancer cells.
It has not only a high capture by the tumor, visible in pet images, as well as a high optical shine in fluorescent modeand without the need for specialized visual equipment.
“There is a real shortage of good clinical options when it comes to double markers,” adds Perrin. “Therefore, we believe this can perform an extremely useful function in treating prostate cancer and, potentially, in other diseaseslike the laryngeal or ovary cancer, if the same approach can be applied to these. ”
Perrin’s team, in collaboration with the BC Cancer Molecular Oncology Department, tested the marker in rats with implanted human tumors.
“Combining 18F-OrganotrifluoroBoratos technology with fluorescein, we have a very promising future to bring the markers approaching the doubles of clinical applications,” says the radiochemical Jerome LozadaFirst author of the article, which conducted preclinical tests while at the UBC.
“The marker is highly transponable For a larger variety of healthy health contexts and hospitals, which usually have access to more standardized equipment.
“There are already similar approaches in the treatment of breast cancer, using a radioactive and blue marker of methylene administered in separate injections,” explains Philip F. CohenHead of the Nuclear Medicine Division of Lions Gate Hospital, which was not involved in the investigation.
“The surgeon uses a radioactive probe to detect radiation and then check if there is blue dye when trying to visually identify the lymph node. This new double marker does the same, but with only one injection”He concludes.
