To detect prostate cancer, it is not that simple. Examination is always the doctor and patient diagnosis uncomfortable and often painful. Reliable results reveal to the analysis of tissue collected from the prostate. Scientists from the Laboratory metallomics and nanotechnology Mendel University four years examined a substance called sarcosine. The result of their research is to test similar gestational. To alert men to undesirable changes in their prostate and timely visit to the doctor. This may help early detection particularly aggressive form of cancer.
Examination per rectum - a palpation through the rectum, and a number of laboratory tests. So today looks for men consuming and yet not entirely reliable diagnosis of prostate cancer. To provide a certain diagnosis of biopsy, where a needle through the rectum, take a sample of prostate tissue.
I nekomfortnosti for these examinations men often put off visiting a doctor. Warning signals, such as frequent urination, or feeling incomplete bladder emptied, are in fact the same as for enlarged prostate - a disease that after the fiftieth year of life embitter living half the male population. Ignoring these symptoms can be dangerous especially in aggressive forms of breast infiltrating bone.
Scientists from Mendel University developed a way men can easily, quickly and reliably monitor themselves whether their prostate exhibits undesirable changes. Help them out a test similar gestational.
The results simply from urine
Scientists from the Laboratory metallomics and nanotechnology have taken to help the amino acid called sarcosine. Its presence in the urine of prostate cancer discovered by scientists from the University of Michigan five years ago.
The research team of Professor René Kizka four years conducting research whose aim was to establish whether the sarcosine reliable guide to determine especially prostate cancer. Scientists have observed amount of sarcosine in the urine of patients with various tumors of the prostate and is compared with healthy individuals. "The results we obtained by analyzing urine samples from about 500 patients show that sarcosine may indeed serve as diagnostically very effective molecule. The big advantage is also its simple analysis, "says Zbynek Heger, laboratory workers metallomics and nanotechnology, which participated in the research.
Currently, diagnosis of this type of cancer based on determination of prostate specific antigen in blood serum. This method of diagnosis is reliable only about 70 to 80 percent and often leads to false positive or negative results. Biopsies were then subjected unnecessarily to 30 percent of patients. Research scientists Brno, which confirms the importance of sarcosine in efficient diagnosis of the occurrence of particularly aggressive forms of prostate cancer Urine is for patients and physicians very important.
When will the preparation on the market?
Brno scientists plan to manufacture simple and inexpensive test that men can use their own home. The basic idea of how the test should look like, they already have. "We are currently looking for a partner from the private sector, which would tester on the market. We talked already with several foreign companies, unsuccessfully so far, "says Robert Plaga, Director of Technology Transfer Centre Mendel University.
According to scientists, this test is designed primarily for home use. Is intended to alert the man on the pathological increase of sarcosine in the urine and timely visit to the doctor, which may help to increase the detection rate especially aggressive prostate cancers.
The groundbreaking significance for postoperative prognosis
Developing a simple tester for home use is not the only goal of Brno scientists. In the Laboratory metallomics and nanotechnology also runs an experimental work that examines how sarcosine can estimate the prognosis of the patient. "It is the patients who were surgically removed prostate. It turns out that men whom the tumor returned after the surgery, preoperative increased concentration of sarcosine in comparison with those who, after removal of the prostate completely healed, "says Zbynek Heger.
If research is to demonstrate the effect of sarcosine at a resolution against aggressive forms of cancer milder types before surgery, the doctor will be an important guideline for planning further postoperative treatment decisions, including whether the patient required subsequent chemotherapy or not. This phenomenon is the subject of further research.
Long-term research is being conducted in cooperation with urological departments of teaching hospitals in Prague Motol and St. Anna in Brno. To confirm the importance of sarcosine in prostate cancer specialist wants Brno scientists have evaluated a large number of samples. For this reason, looking for foreign partners, which already include hospitals in Germany and Austria, which stated that they would supply laboratory urine samples.
Source: tz Mendelu.cz