Prostate cancer research in London, Ont. expected to yield large benefits

MRI and [18F]-DCFPyL PET images of six trial participants with prostate cancer. (Source: Lawson Health Research Institute)

Prostate cancer imaging research happening in London, Ont. could bring big benefits, according to Lawson Health Research Institute.

According to a release from the organization, scientists at Lawson are at the forefront of research that uses imaging agents that bind to a protein on the surface of prostate cancer cells called prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA).

The imaging technology is then used to capture clear images of the location and extent of the cancer.

Working with imaging specialists, scientists at Lawson believe there is hope that registries of these scans that are in development could even lead to automated detection of prostate cancer.

The Canadian Cancer Society recently committed $125,000 in funding for the creation of a database of PET/CT prostate cancer scans.

Led by Dr. Katherine Zukotynski, an Adjunct Scientist at Lawson, the idea is to make annotated findings accessible to a wider community of medical and research professionals.

“If you have an idea of the amount of disease detected, correlated with what kind of prognosis, then this could be very helpful. It would allow oncologists to compare patients with similar cases, which may help determine the best therapies to try,” said Zukotynski.

Lawson has also become the first in Canada to enter a sublicense agreement to produce a new PET imaging agent called PSMA-1007 - that may produce even clearer images, especially when there’s a recurrence of cancer.