Prostate cancer precision

Accurate biopsies are vital to prostate cancer detection and, hence, treatment. Early stage detection requires accurate imaging systems and precise needle insertion techniques to probe small potential tumors. Currently, ultrasound imaging is used to manually insert a biopsy needle to the prostate. Unfortunately, the biopsy needle often misses the tumor because ultrasound images are too low resolution to see small, early stage, tumors. Tumors smaller than 5 mm are not detected by ultrasound imaging [ 11 ]. Only about 20 % of tumors between 5 and 10 mm are detected by ultrasound. Even large tumors, of the order of 20-25 mm, are only detected 79 % of the time. 

Harmsen and co-workers presented the precise visualization of the full tumour extent in transgenic mouse models of breast cancer, sarcoma, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and prostate cancer (Harmsen et al. 2015a). Their SERRS tag has the following features (i) star-shaped Au core (75 nm diameter) demonstrating a LSPR in the NIR region, (ii) a RRM that is in resonance with the detection laser (785 nm) and (iii) a biocompatible encapsulation method that allows efficient... 

However, chronic administration (e.g. as a depot injection) evokes an initial agonist phase of several days to weeks, followed by a suppression of gonadotrophin secretion. The precise molecular site of action of this process is unclear, but it is thought to involve an initial loss of receptors, followed by an uncoupling of receptors from their effector systems. Chronic administration is used clinically in the treatment of sex-hormone responsive tumors such as prostate and breast cancer. 

The precise role of immunological surveillance in tumorigenesis is not well dehned for the majority of malignancies. The occurrence of a unique spectrum of malignancies in immunosuppressed individuals suggests either that immune surveillance is only important in certain tumors or that the duration needed to see an increased incidence of many more common tumors (e.g., colorectal, breast, lung, or prostate carcinomas) is not reached. Suppression of T cell mediated immunity has, however, been unequivocally associated with an increased incidence of certain mahgnancies. In patients with profound defects in T cell immunity the time to tumor detection is often shorter than for cancers induced by other mechanisms. 

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