MONDAY, Dec. 10 (HealthDay News) ? A new, highly targeted form of biopsy could be an advance in prostate cancer care, a new study suggests.
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, say prostate tumors can be diagnosed using ?image-guided targeted biopsy? ? the direct sampling of tumors in tissue using both MRI and real-time ultrasound.
The UCLA team say this targeted form of biopsy is much more accurate than conventional ?blind? biopsies that do not enable doctors to actually see the tumors. They suggested the new procedure may improve early detection of prostate cancer and result in fewer biopsies overall.
?Early prostate cancer is difficult to image because of the limited contrast between normal and malignant tissues within the prostate,? study senior author Dr. Leonard Marks, a professor of urology and director of the UCLA Active Surveillance Program, said in a university news release. ?Conventional biopsies are basically performed blindly, because we can?t see what we?re aiming for. Now, with this new method we have the potential to see the prostate cancer and aim for it in a much more refined and rational manner.?
Almost all of the 1 million prostate biopsies performed in the United States every year are performed after a man tests positive for elevated blood levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), which can indicate prostate cancer.
One expert not connected to the new study said current biopsy methods have their pros and cons.
?Currently, the diagnosis of prostate cancer occurs through a transrectal ultrasound guided prostate biopsy,? said Dr. Warren Bromberg, chief of urology at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y.
?The advantage of this procedure is that it can be performed with local anesthesia in a urologist?s office in less than 10 minutes,? he said. ?The problem with this method is that approximately 75 percent of men have negative biopsies [and] the cancerous areas are usually not visible. So, multiple biopsies are taken to try to ?find? the cancer, the procedure is usually repeated at some point when the PSA test continues to rise, insignificant cancers are detected as often as significant ones, there is always the fear that a cancer was missed, and there are risks of infection, pain and bleeding.?
The UCLA team sought to determine if more targeted biopsy methods could change that. In the study, they actively monitored 171 men with slow-growing prostate cancers or those who had received negative biopsies but maintained persistently high PSA levels, suggesting that a tumor might be present.
The participants first had an MRI to visualize their prostate. That image was sent to a device, called Artemis, that fuses the MRI pictures with real-time, three-dimensional ultrasound. This fusion process allows a urologist to see lesions during the biopsy.
?With the Artemis, we have a virtual map of the suspicious areas placed directly onto the ultrasound image during the biopsy,? noted Marks. ?When you can see a lesion, you?ve got a major advantage of knowing what?s really going on in the prostate. The results have been very dramatic, and the rate of cancer detection in these targeted biopsies is very high. We?re finding a lot of tumors that hadn?t been found before using conventional biopsies.?
Fifty-three percent of the men involved in the study had prostate cancer, according to the study published online Dec. 10 in The Journal of Urology. Marks and his colleagues also found that 38 percent of the cancers found using targeted biopsy were aggressive tumors ? meaning they more likely to spread and require treatment.
Unlike conventional blind biopsies which can be painful and require men to be placed under general anesthesia and undergo lengthy recoveries, the targeted UCLA biopsies were performed in about 20 minutes in an outpatient clinic setting under local anesthesia, the team said.
?Targeted prostate biopsy has the potential to improve the diagnosis of prostate cancer and may aid in the selection of patients for active surveillance and focal therapy,? the study authors wrote.
Another expert said the the new technology has real promise.
?Prostate biopsies have been performed the same way for the past 30 years,? said Dr. Louis Potters, chair of radiation medicine at North Shore-LIJ Health System in New Hyde Park, N.Y. ?The study from UCLA is evaluating the next step in the evolution of the prostate biopsy. It combines the state-of-the-art MRI which allows clinicians to see inside the prostate with incredible detail.?
Potters said the UCLA data matches those from his own institution ?that reports improved cancer detection of this technique? compared to traditional biopsy.
?More importantly, the lesions seen on the MRI with a corresponding positive biopsy are associated with a higher grade cancer and increased amount of cancer sampled,? he said. ?This translates into improved information for the patient, as well as the clinician.?
Bromberg agreed.
Besides allowing ?better visualization? of tumors, ?adding the MRI to the ultrasound seems to allow preferential detection of the more life-threatening type of cancer [high-grade], which could reduce the chances that a man would undergo unnecessary treatment,? he said.
As for cost, ?the overall added cost of the MRI may be offset by the reduced number of biopsy procedures,? Bromberg said.
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute provides more information on prostate cancer screening.
? Mary Elizabeth Dallas
SOURCE: Warren Bromberg, M.D., chief, urology, Northern Westchester Hospital, Mount Kisco, N.Y.; Louis Potters, M.D., chair, radiation medicine, North Shore-LIJ Health System, New Hyde Park, N.Y.; University of California, Los Angeles, news release, Dec. 10, 2012
Discover the role that incentives play in self-publishing success on the next Published & Profitable new author interview.
Join me tomorrow when I interview Bill Branson, author of Time Management Tweets for Busy Executives, on the next Published & Profitable author interview call, Tuesday, December 11, at 4 PM Eastern.
In addition to the previously-shared discussion topics, I?ll be asking Bill about his incentive, 3 Things Your Computer Can Teach You About Time Management.
By attending Tuesday?s call, you?ll get a better understanding of the writing and marketing tasks involved in writing and self-publishing success, including:
Why self-published authors need to offer and create incentives.
The origins of Bill?s incentive.
Formatting, design, and writing decisions.
The steps that Bill took creating it.
How he plans to use it to marketing and promoting his brand and selling his book.
When you attend my author interview call tomorrow, you?ll also get a free copy of 3 Things Your Computer Can Teach You About Time Management for you to study and use as a model for creating your own book marketing incentives.
A case study in self-publishing success
Attend my interview with Bill Branson. It presents a unique ?real world? opportunity to hear a first-time author describe the goals, lessons, and realities of balancing a career with writing and self-publishing a book. The call takes place Tuesday, December 11, at 4 PM Eastern. All Published & Profitable members and friends are invited to attend. There will be handouts and opportunities to ask questions. To attend, simply call 605-475-6150 and enter PIN 513391#.
FIRST PERSON | Surgery for small breast cancer tumors may soon be a thing of the past. A new procedure called cryoablation turns a tumor into a ball of ice. Instead of undergoing surgery to remove the tumor, a doctor can now freeze it. I like that idea.
Freezing tumors
The Telegraph reported on Dec. 10 that doctors are looking into cyroablation as a viable alternative to breast cancer surgery. Cryoablation is available in the United States, but it's not usually performed on breast cancer tumors. The procedure is simple: A needle is inserted into the tumor and causes it to freeze. There is no need to remove the tumor, as it dies and the body absorbs it.
The needle is hooked up to specialized equipment, which is cooled to a chilly -274 degrees Fahrenheit. A network of tiny tubes deliver liquid nitrogen to the needle, and the physician controls the size of the "ice ball" delivered to the tumor. This allows the doctor to freeze breast cancer tumors as large as a golf ball.
Alternatives to surgery are needed
If cryoablation could be used as an alternative to breast cancer surgery, it would be wonderful. I had two surgeries for breast cancer. The first was a wire-guided surgical biopsy to determine if the tumor was actually cancerous, and then I had a mastectomy of my left breast several months later.
It would have been great to have the choice to opt out of surgery and instead have the tumor frozen. I would still have my left breast, and breast reconstruction would not have been an issue. Instead of undergoing a surgery that took more than 12 hours, I would have had a 15-minute procedure in a doctor's office. Recovery time from surgery was more than a month. Cryoablation has little to no recovery time.
Hopefully, cryoablation will become a reality for breast cancer patients. Not all women will fall into the guidelines for this procedure, but many will. The medical community should look for any means possible to prevent the disfiguring surgeries current breast cancer treatment requires.
Lynda Altman was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2011. She writes a series for Yahoo! Shine called "My Battle With Breast Cancer."
Rams coach Jeff Fisher, who has lost to Bill Belichick by a combined score of 104-7 in their last two meetings, addressed the media on Tuesday, touching on a variety of topics.
On the question of whether multiple pass interference penalties against St. Louis cornerback Bradley Fletcher were justified, Fisher was surprisingly candid.
?He?s grabbing,? Fisher said. ?He grabbed. When you grab and the ball?s in the air, it?s pass interference. When you grab and the ball?s not in the air, it?s defensive holding. So, in each case, there was hand contact. Sometimes those aren?t called, but I can see what they saw and why they called them.?
Fisher then took a right turn while answering the question, offering up criticism of some calls that went against the Rams.
?I did think that we had a potential offensive pass interference on the ball in the end zone,? Fisher said. ?I was a little disappointed ? they also missed three roughing the passer calls on our quarterback. Those are 15-yard penalties and they keep drives alive. But, as I said, it?s a difficult game to officiate and they?re not going to see everything, but I?d like to have seen [referee Walt Coleman] do a better job of protecting our quarterback.?
Fisher pointed to three specific non-roughing calls ? a hit from Pats linebacker Dont?a Hightower on quarterback Sam Bradford, and then two more occasions on which Bradford was ?hit in the face.?
There?s a chance Fisher will be hit in the wallet. The rules in this regard aren?t always clear.? Just like the rules regarding roughing the passer.
Stanford scientists build the first all-carbon solar cell Public release date: 31-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mark Shwartz mshwartz@stanford.edu 650-723-9296 Stanford University
Stanford University scientists have built the first solar cell made entirely of carbon, a promising alternative to the expensive materials used in photovoltaic devices today.
The results are published in the Oct. 31 online edition of the journal ACS Nano.
"Carbon has the potential to deliver high performance at a low cost," said study senior author Zhenan Bao, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a working solar cell that has all of the components made of carbon. This study builds on previous work done in our lab."
Unlike rigid silicon solar panels that adorn many rooftops, Stanford's thin film prototype is made of carbon materials that can be coated from solution. "Perhaps in the future we can look at alternative markets where flexible carbon solar cells are coated on the surface of buildings, on windows or on cars to generate electricity," Bao said.
The coating technique also has the potential to reduce manufacturing costs, said Stanford graduate student Michael Vosgueritchian, co-lead author of the study with postdoctoral researcher Marc Ramuz.
"Processing silicon-based solar cells requires a lot of steps," Vosgueritchian explained. "But our entire device can be built using simple coating methods that don't require expensive tools and machines."
Carbon nanomaterials
The Bao group's experimental solar cell consists of a photoactive layer, which absorbs sunlight, sandwiched between two electrodes. In a typical thin film solar cell, the electrodes are made of conductive metals and indium tin oxide (ITO). "Materials like indium are scarce and becoming more expensive as the demand for solar cells, touchscreen panels and other electronic devices grows," Bao said. "Carbon, on the other hand, is low cost and Earth-abundant."
For the study, Bao and her colleagues replaced the silver and ITO used in conventional electrodes with graphene sheets of carbon that are one atom thick and single-walled carbon nanotubes that are 10,000 times narrower than a human hair. "Carbon nanotubes have extraordinary electrical conductivity and light-absorption properties," Bao said.
For the active layer, the scientists used material made of carbon nanotubes and "buckyballs" soccer ball-shaped carbon molecules just one nanometer in diameter. The research team recently filed a patent for the entire device.
"Every component in our solar cell, from top to bottom, is made of carbon materials," Vosgueritchian said. "Other groups have reported making all-carbon solar cells, but they were referring to just the active layer in the middle, not the electrodes."
One drawback of the all-carbon prototype is that it primarily absorbs near-infrared wavelengths of light, contributing to a laboratory efficiency of less than 1 percent much lower than commercially available solar cells. "We clearly have a long way to go on efficiency," Bao said. "But with better materials and better processing techniques, we expect that the efficiency will go up quite dramatically."
Improving efficiency
The Stanford team is looking at a variety of ways to improve efficiency. "Roughness can short-circuit the device and make it hard to collect the current," Bao said. "We have to figure out how to make each layer very smooth by stacking the nanomaterials really well."
The researchers are also experimenting with carbon nanomaterials that can absorb more light in a broader range of wavelengths, including the visible spectrum.
"Materials made of carbon are very robust," Bao said. "They remain stable in air temperatures of nearly 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit."
The ability of carbon solar cells to out-perform conventional devices under extreme conditions could overcome the need for greater efficiency, according to Vosgueritchian. "We believe that all-carbon solar cells could be used in extreme environments, such as at high temperatures or at high physical stress," he said. "But obviously we want the highest efficiency possible and are working on ways to improve our device."
"Photovoltaics will definitely be a very important source of power that we will tap into in the future," Bao said. "We have a lot of available sunlight. We've got to figure out some way to use this natural resource that is given to us."
###
Other authors of the study are Peng Wei of Stanford and Chenggong Wang and Yongli Gao of the University of Rochester Department of Physics and Astronomy. The research was funded by the Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford and the Air Force Office for Scientific Research.
This article was written by Mark Shwartz of the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Stanford scientists build the first all-carbon solar cell Public release date: 31-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mark Shwartz mshwartz@stanford.edu 650-723-9296 Stanford University
Stanford University scientists have built the first solar cell made entirely of carbon, a promising alternative to the expensive materials used in photovoltaic devices today.
The results are published in the Oct. 31 online edition of the journal ACS Nano.
"Carbon has the potential to deliver high performance at a low cost," said study senior author Zhenan Bao, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a working solar cell that has all of the components made of carbon. This study builds on previous work done in our lab."
Unlike rigid silicon solar panels that adorn many rooftops, Stanford's thin film prototype is made of carbon materials that can be coated from solution. "Perhaps in the future we can look at alternative markets where flexible carbon solar cells are coated on the surface of buildings, on windows or on cars to generate electricity," Bao said.
The coating technique also has the potential to reduce manufacturing costs, said Stanford graduate student Michael Vosgueritchian, co-lead author of the study with postdoctoral researcher Marc Ramuz.
"Processing silicon-based solar cells requires a lot of steps," Vosgueritchian explained. "But our entire device can be built using simple coating methods that don't require expensive tools and machines."
Carbon nanomaterials
The Bao group's experimental solar cell consists of a photoactive layer, which absorbs sunlight, sandwiched between two electrodes. In a typical thin film solar cell, the electrodes are made of conductive metals and indium tin oxide (ITO). "Materials like indium are scarce and becoming more expensive as the demand for solar cells, touchscreen panels and other electronic devices grows," Bao said. "Carbon, on the other hand, is low cost and Earth-abundant."
For the study, Bao and her colleagues replaced the silver and ITO used in conventional electrodes with graphene sheets of carbon that are one atom thick and single-walled carbon nanotubes that are 10,000 times narrower than a human hair. "Carbon nanotubes have extraordinary electrical conductivity and light-absorption properties," Bao said.
For the active layer, the scientists used material made of carbon nanotubes and "buckyballs" soccer ball-shaped carbon molecules just one nanometer in diameter. The research team recently filed a patent for the entire device.
"Every component in our solar cell, from top to bottom, is made of carbon materials," Vosgueritchian said. "Other groups have reported making all-carbon solar cells, but they were referring to just the active layer in the middle, not the electrodes."
One drawback of the all-carbon prototype is that it primarily absorbs near-infrared wavelengths of light, contributing to a laboratory efficiency of less than 1 percent much lower than commercially available solar cells. "We clearly have a long way to go on efficiency," Bao said. "But with better materials and better processing techniques, we expect that the efficiency will go up quite dramatically."
Improving efficiency
The Stanford team is looking at a variety of ways to improve efficiency. "Roughness can short-circuit the device and make it hard to collect the current," Bao said. "We have to figure out how to make each layer very smooth by stacking the nanomaterials really well."
The researchers are also experimenting with carbon nanomaterials that can absorb more light in a broader range of wavelengths, including the visible spectrum.
"Materials made of carbon are very robust," Bao said. "They remain stable in air temperatures of nearly 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit."
The ability of carbon solar cells to out-perform conventional devices under extreme conditions could overcome the need for greater efficiency, according to Vosgueritchian. "We believe that all-carbon solar cells could be used in extreme environments, such as at high temperatures or at high physical stress," he said. "But obviously we want the highest efficiency possible and are working on ways to improve our device."
"Photovoltaics will definitely be a very important source of power that we will tap into in the future," Bao said. "We have a lot of available sunlight. We've got to figure out some way to use this natural resource that is given to us."
###
Other authors of the study are Peng Wei of Stanford and Chenggong Wang and Yongli Gao of the University of Rochester Department of Physics and Astronomy. The research was funded by the Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford and the Air Force Office for Scientific Research.
This article was written by Mark Shwartz of the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Discover the role that incentives play in self-publishing success on the next Published & Profitable new author interview.
In addition to the previously-shared discussion topics, I?ll be asking Bill about his incentive, 3 Things Your Computer Can Teach You About Time Management.
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Public release date: 31-Oct-2012
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