Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. New Studies Offer Hope in Battling Prostate Cancer Zlatica Hoke WASHINGTON - The American Cancer Society says one in nine men will be diagnosed with prostate cancerin his lifetime and one in 41 will die fromit.Several news studies offer hopethatthese number could decreasewithearly and accurate diagnosis. A new study based on a randomized controlled trial on 300 prostate cancer patients in Australiahas foundthat a molecular imaging technique is more accurate than conventional medical imagingthatuses CT(computed tomography)and bone scan. Prostate cancer is treated by surgery to remove the prostate or by intensive radiotherapy that targets the tumor. Doctors often useCT and bone scans to determine if the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. A team led by ProfessorMichael Hofmanconductedtrials onprostate cancerpatients in 10hospitals in Australiausingtheprostate-specific membrane antigen PET-CT scan. "We inject a radio-active small molecule intravenously. It finds its way to prostate cancer cells and we then image the whole body on a positron emission tomography scanner, i.e. PET(positron emission tomography)scanner and this enables us to visualize the distribution of disease spread withstriking tumor-to-background contrast," said Hofman. The trials showed that prostate-specific membrane antigen PET-CT scan had a 27% greater accuracy than that of conventional imaging, which proved to have lower sensitivity.That means the new imaging has 92%accuracy compared to 65%of a CT bonescan.A follow-up trial conducted after six months confirmed the initial results. The study, published inTheLancetmedicaljournal, says that "theprimary outcome was accuracy of first-line imaging for identifying either pelvic nodal or distant-metastatic disease." Hofman'sresearchteamrecommends theuse ofnew scansinroutine clinical practiceinstead of the current CT and bone scans for better accuracy.They saya more accurate imagery can help doctors determine whether to use targetedtreatment or more advanced treatment for the whole body. A moreaccurate diagnosiscutsthe need for repeatedradio-active testing andthuscutsa patient's exposure to harmfulradiation. It also is likely to reduce the number of cancer relapse cases. Hereditary Study of Prostate Cancer Another study may help identify men who are more likely to get prostate cancer than others.Researchers at the Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee,have identifiedhaplotypes, ancestral fragments of DNA, associated with hereditary prostate cancer.They comparedgenetic data oftwo groups ofmen with prostate cancer,one with a strong family history of the disease and another without a family history of prostate cancer.Theyanalyzedthe haplotypes of 2,300menata location of chromosome 8.The Vanderbilt team has earlier found that a gene on chromosome 8 is particularly associated with prostate cancer susceptibility. "We've taken a comprehensive shotgun approach to investigate data at this location and have been able to deconstruct how it contributes to risk, including which of the haplotypes impact age of onset and also aggressiveness," said researcher Jeffrey R. Smith. The study, published inNature Communications,saysroughly 9% of prostate canceris linked toheritability.But one mutation increased risk as much as 22-fold. Another mutation increased risk 4-fold, andwas observed even among men without a strong family history. The study is believed to be the first to identify haplotypes comprehensively from all associated genetic variants. Vanderbilt researchers earlier found that a mutation in aparticular genepredisposes men of European descent to prostate cancer.Theyfound the mutation to be rare but carrying an8%risk of prostate cancer among those who inherit it. Finding Active Cancer Another new study says thatatestthatchecks for prostate cancer DNA inbloodcouldprovide the earliest evidence that prostate cancer is active. The studyby researchers at Britain'sUniversity College London Cancer Institutesaysthat prostate cancer leaves a detectable "fingerprint" in blood. "This test could be the first to tell us cancer has gotteninto blood before the spread is large enough to see on imaging," said Mark Emberton, dean of the faculty of medical sciences. "This could allow targeting of treatment for men at the highest risk of prostate cancer spread." The study published earlier this month inThe Journal of Clinical Investigationsays the finding could help doctors monitor tumor behavior, see if it has spread and choose the best treatment.The technique is stillbeingtested on patients to determine ifitcan complement or replace thecurrentprostate-specific antigentest. LessAggressivevs. MoreAggressive Scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) say they have discovereda method to distinguishlessaggressive frommoreaggressive forms of prostate cancerthat eventuallycause apatient's death. The findings are meant tohelpdoctorsavoidperhapsunnecessaryandharmfultreatment for less aggressivetypes ofcancer. The new study shows how the number of aggressive cells in a tumor sample defines how quickly the disease will progress and spread. The study also reveals three new subtypes of prostate cancer that could be used to stratify patients for different treatments. "Our aim is to use more sophisticated analytical approaches to de-convolute the structure of prostate cancer transcriptome data, providing novel clinically actionable information for this disease," said the team. Lead researcher Colin Cooper said: "Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men inBritain.It usually develops slowly, andthe majority ofcancers will not require treatment in a man's lifetime. However, doctors struggle to predict which tumors will become aggressive, making it hard to decide on treatment for many men." In the United States prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancerin men after skin cancer.The American Cancer Society says the chance of having prostate cancer rises rapidly after the age of 50and that affects different races differently. It develops more often inAfrican-Americanmen and less often in Asian-American and Latino men. It says prostate cancer seems to run in some families and that several inherited gene changes (mutations) seem to raise prostate cancer risk. The new studies promise tohelp improveand individualizetreatmentof prostate cancerand save lives. .