Nymox Pharma has developed a new drug to more effectively treat prostate enlargement, a common and troublesome affliction of men in mid to later age

Scientists at Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) are developing and commercializing a promising novel therapy for the treatment of prostate cancer that may offer patients a faster and more precise treatment than existing clinical alternatives, with fewer side effects.

The new treatment–magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided transurethral ultrasound–uses heat from focused ultrasound to treat cancer in the prostate gland precisely while sparing the delicate noncancerous tissues around the prostate essential for healthy urinary, bowel and sexual function.

Sunnybrook researchers Dr. Michael Bronskill and Dr. Rajiv Chopra have licensed their innovation and formed Profound Medical Inc., which will develop the technology for clinical use.

Unlike surgical removal of the prostate, the treatment is minimally invasive and could be performed without a lengthy hospital stay. In preclinical studies, treatment takes less than 30 minutes. The therapy, on which clinicians at Sunnybrook will conduct preliminary testing in preparation for a clinical trial, could help limit the number of men living with the common, debilitating and often permanent side effects of surgery and radiation treatments currently used. More of these invasive therapies are being performed now because improved awareness among younger men has converged with better clinical detection tools.

Profound’s clinical development is targeted at treatment that reduces the high level of incontinence and impotence associated with current, invasive treatments. The therapy involves two different and naturally incompatible technologies, ultrasound and MRI, which Bronskill and Chopra spent 10 years making compatible. “You have to make an ultrasound heating applicator work inside a magnetic resonance imager, without the two technologies interfering with each other,” says Bronskill, who is a professor at the University of Toronto. “The prostate cancer site is a natural for this technology because it’s surrounded by structures you want to spare.” Dr. Laurence Klotz, chief of urology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and a professor at the University of Toronto, says that a noninvasive therapy for early, localized prostate cancer could improve the quality of life of hundreds of thousands of men. “The key to effective noninvasive treatment is accurate imaging of the target organ and of the effects of the treatment on tissue. In that respect, MR-guided ultrasound has many potential advantages over transrectal ultrasound-guided focused ultrasound, now approved for use in Canada,” says Klotz.

The scientists’ creation of this clinically viable product was done in a setting committed to commercialization. “At SRI, we are dedicated not only to developing new and better therapies and technologies, but also to getting those discoveries to our patients,” says Dr. Michael Julius, vice-president of research at Sunnybrook. Profound Medical Inc. is the third imaging-technology company to be spun out of research at SRI in recent years. The other two are VisualSonics Inc. and Sentinelle Medical Inc.

News source

New clinical data from a study of 570 men published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Urology1 support the use of PROGENSA PCA3 as a tool for diagnosing prostate cancer. The study confirms that PROGENSA PCA3, the world’s first gene-based urine test to help detect prostate cancer, can provide clinicians with valuable information that helps guide diagnosis.

As awareness and clinical support for PROGENSA PCA3 grows, a unique new resource regarding prostate cancer has been launched. www.PCA3.org is the first patient and professional website dedicated solely to PCA3, providing patients and healthcare professionals with information about how PCA3 can be used to help tackle the UK’s most common cancer affecting males.

Launched last year in the UK, PROGENSA PCA3 addresses some of the limitations of existing diagnostic tools. For example, Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) is commonly elevated for reasons not related to prostate cancer, and as a result, PSA testing produces many ‘false positive’ results, which can burden patients and the healthcare system. In contrast, the genetic marker PCA3 is elevated only in cancerous prostate tissue, making it a more specific indicator of cancer than PSA, potentially reducing the number of unnecessary biopsies.

“We found that the percent of biopsy-positive men identified directly increased with the PCA3 score,” commented Dr. Jack Groskopf, Director of Oncology Research and Development at Gen-Probe Incorporated and co-author of the study. “We also confirmed that the PCA3 score was independent of prostate size; this is important because PSA levels can be elevated in men who have enlarged prostates due to non-cancerous conditions.”

Men with a PCA3 score of less than five showed a positive biopsy rate of 14 percent; however, a PCA3 score greater than 100 showed a 69 percent biopsy positive rate. Results were similar regardless of a patient’s PSA levels or whether they had undergone repeat biopsies.

“PROGENSA PCA3 provides physicians with valuable information to guide biopsy decisions.” added Dr. Groskopf.

The study expands on findings from a previous study conducted by Dr. Leonard Marks of the Urological Sciences Research Foundation published in the March 2007 issue of Urology.

PROGENSA PCA3 is the first CE-Marked test to use the presence of PCA3 (a genetic marker for prostate cancer) to predict prostate cancer, and can be used in conjunction with current tests to confirm diagnosis.2-7 PCA3 is overexpressed, relative to benign cells, by 60- to 100-fold in more than 90 percent of prostate tumors. DiagnoCure Inc. (TSX: CUR) is the exclusive worldwide licensee for all diagnostic and therapeutic applications of the gene. Gen-Probe acquired exclusive worldwide diagnostic rights to the PCA3 gene from DiagnoCure in November of 2003.

News source