One of the most common types of cancer in men, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, after lung cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, about 1 man in 9 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime. Histopathology of tissue biopsies is the standard method used for evaluating cancer risk. Based on diagnostic biopsy samples, the method offers promise to more accurately diagnose those with prostate cancer that need surgery and those who do not.
While there are diverse treatment options such as surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, distinction between indolent and aggressive disease is a major challenge in diagnosing prostate cancer. According to an issu.com report, researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) on Long Island have tested a new technique called "single cell genomics" that may help early and more accurate detection of prostate cancer risk. The results of the study were published in Cancer Research in November 2017.
This technique involves using hundreds of prostate cancer cells from biopsy specimens to provide a superior assessment of prostate cancer risk. Based on the single nucleus sequencing (SNS) on a total of 4,021 nuclei from 122 anatomical locations in 11 patients, the team found that SNS has greater sensitivity than core histopathology. SNS also has the potential to significantly improve tumor staging and grading. The results of single cell genomics provided data that was more closely replicative of the post-surgical Gleason score than the biopsy-based, pre-surgical Gleason score.
Compared to corresponding pre-surgical predictive biopsies, single cell genomics yielded assessments of tumors that more closely aligned with the results of post-surgical pathological analysis which reveal the actual pathology. According to the study's lead author Alexander Krasnitzas, this is important because treatment decisions in such cases depend on the pre-surgical biopsy, and not the surgical specimen. The researchers contend that this new cell testing method could potentially enhance traditional biopsy-core histopathology, considerably improving risk assessment and informing treatment decisions, especially in borderline cases.