Improving assignation of prostate cancer treatments
Micrograph showing prostatic acinar adenocarcinoma (the most common form of prostate cancer) ©Nephron/Wikimedia

Improving assignation of prostate cancer treatments

A research group from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, hopes to re-evaluate the overtreatment of patients with prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer found in men in Europe. Each year in Norway, around 5,000 men are diagnosed with the disease.

Previously, researchers have lacked the diagnostic tools to accurately differentiate more aggressive forms from those which are less aggressive.

Some patients require aggressive treatment programmes; however, this isn’t always necessary. The inability to individually assess the extent of cancer from patient to patient leads to many being overtreated and subsequently suffer from unnecessary ailments.

Researcher May-Britt Tessem is leading the research group, which is affiliated with the MR Cancer Group, Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging, NTNU.

“We’ll be using new and groundbreaking imaging technology, called ‘multiomics technology’,” she said. The new technology facilitates a three-dimensional overview of tissue and what it consists of.

The work being done by the group has led to Tessem being awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant for her research on prostate cancer.

The group intends to find clinical diagnostic markers which can help to prevent the overtreatment, alongside the subsequent side effects and reduced quality of life.

Tessem and her colleagues hope to supply information about the molecular signature of each patient.

Recently, the group detected two metabolic biomarkers which are substances in the body that can be analysed and that tell us something about the condition of the body.

In particular, the two biomarkers identified can help to determine whether prostate cancer patients are likely to relapse following surgery, and operate as an important marker for aggressive prostate cancer.

Tessem is the fourth NTNU researcher within the Horizon 2020 research programme to receive an ERC Starting Grant. The funding of €1.5m will be spread over five years.