Robotic Prostatectomy Surgeon Feels Gene Screening More Effective in Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

The currently used diagnosis and staging method for prostate cancer is PSA blood tests and Gleason scoring. These tests however are not effective in giving the doctors and patients a complete picture of the stage of the disease and the way in which it is likely to spread.

The scientists at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton are working on more effective methods for diagnosing prostate cancer.

The research team is evaluating a microarray taken from patients in Sweden and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center located at New York. They are looking at these microarrays for determining the molecular structure link that reveals the aggressiveness of prostate cancer. Samples of the tissue taken from the tumours of 281 Swedish patients and 150 patients from Sloan Kettering have been subjected to independent mRNA genetic expression pattern tests. Dr. David Samadi explains the test results thus, there are two subtypes of prostate cancer that are aggressive in nature and result in three times more fatalities. A notable observation is that when these cases were tested through Gleason screening, the test results assigned a low score to them. Coming to the PSA testing, the blood samples are tested for the PSA level velocity, a spike in the level indicates the presence of prostate cancer. A biopsy is further conducted to determine the tumour cell patterns and then the Gleason method is used to evaluate the tumour grade. The grade is more often than not accurate in determining the aggressive ness of cancer in the patient. Dr. Samadi recommends most of the patients to undergo robotic prostate surgery so that the cancer is completely removed from the body and chances of spreading are eliminated. The research on gene screening is going on in full swing and the team will be able to arrive on definite results after further research.