Prostate Cancer Detected with Elastography
Another tool to screen patients for prostate cancer was described in the July issue of BJU (British Journal of Urology) International, real time elastography (RTE). The paper’s abstract is publicly available at PubMed.
RTE entails ultrasonography technology applied using a transrectal probe as a transducer. The probe used in this study was 7.5 MHz. RTE may be a useful imaging modality to assess for prostate cancer because it indicates areas of displacement between paired tissue images from ultrasound when placed under axial compressive forces. Tissues that are stiffer are more likely to be malignant, when this data is coupled with the lesion size. For this study, tissue that was greater than 5 cm in size and stiff in nature was dubbed malignant.
The research team from Austria evaluated the ability of RTE to correctly identify patients with prostate cancer. 15 men who participated in the study were all undergoing radical prostatectomy. Findings from RTE were compared to independent pathologic review of specimens procured during surgery.
Examination with RTE had 85 percent sensitivity identifying areas of malignant foci (28 of the 35 areas that were identified pathologically). Overall, the imaging technique did detect at least one area of malignancy in each of the patients. Only four false positives were noted; the authors attributed those to the learning curve with the novel approach.
The researchers note that RTE is an appropriate technique to assess the elasticity of tissue, which may be associated with malignancy. This tool can also pinpoint the location of malignancy within the prostate gland. Further information is required to validate the findings of this study, as well as to investigate the utility of this tool as a screening method.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins are also investigating another tool that may be an appropriate screening technique for prostate cancer. This was briefly described on Hospital Buyer.
August 7, 2007 Related topics: New Technology & Innovation, Diagnostic, Renal & Urology