Molecularly targeted precision surgery in PCa
Molecularly targeted precision surgery for prostate cancer is expected to enable surgeons to refine their techniques in reducing positive surgical margins (PSM), and thereby contribute to lowering rates of biochemical recurrence.
Prof. Freddie Hamdy (GB) gave an overview of the work done by a multidisciplinary group of physicians and engineers in the United Kingdom to develop fluorescence image-guided surgery (FIGS) in the hopes to better identifyextra-capsular and nodal involvement in prostate cancer during surgery.
“I urge urologists not to work in isolation as this type of work can only be possible with the involvement of various specialists and engineers,” said Hamdy during the session of the European Uro-Oncology Group (EUOG) moderated by Prof. Susanne Osanto (NL).
Hamdy said outcomes of radical prostatectomy are far from satisfactory since 20 to 50% of patients have positive surgical margins, and that margin rates and operative results can be improved by better pre-operative, operative staging and precision surgery.
Fluorescence imaging works on the principle where a molecular system absorbs then emits light.During the absorption process lymph nodes and tissue structures are clearly seen by the surgeon enabling them to excise diseased tissue.
“Our aims are to optimize the techniques for routine clinical application and use molecularly targeted imaging to investigate the genetics of prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) expression and genomic diversity of prostate cancer,” Hamdy said.