UroToday.com The Institute of Medicine has drawn professional and public attention to the safety of patients in our health care system through two prominent publications. The Joint Commission has responded by developing a series of National Patient Safety Goals that must be followed to achieve accreditation.

For patients undergoing surgery and procedures, the JCAHO developed the Universal Protocol for Preventing Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure, Wrong Person SurgeryTM which outlines a number of essential practices designed to ensure patient safety, including the designation of “minimal risk” and “more than minimal risk” procedures.

As a result, without data to show the contrary, many institutions and practices may judge the 2 most commonly performed office procedures, cystoscopy and transrectal ultrasound guided biopsies (TRUSBX), to represent more than minimal risk procedures, and thus be subjected to the same requirements as a major surgical procedure.

The authors performed a prospective quality assurance study to evaluate the true risk associated with these 2 commonly performed procedures in order to address the concern that these would be considered as more than minimal risk.

Written by Surena F. Matin, MD as part of Beyond the Abstract on UroToday.com

UroToday the only urology website with original content written by global urology key opinion leaders actively engaged in clinical practice. To access the latest urology news releases from UroToday, go tourotoday.com

Springer, one of the leading publishers in the fields of science, technology and medicine, has signed an agreement with The Endocrine Society to copublish a new journal, Hormones & Cancer, starting in January 2010. Hormonal cancers include two of the most deadly cancer subtypes, cancers of the breast and prostate. In addition to these cancers, Hormones & Cancer will include research articles covering other lesscommonly occurring cancer subtypes, such as thyroid, gynecologic and pituitary cancer. The journal will help to bridge the gap between those working in the two often disconnected fields of endocrinology and cancer research.

Hormones & Cancer will be a true translational journal, including basic scientific, epidemiological and clinical research papers. Because of the inherent multidisciplinary nature of the field, it is anticipated that the journals focus will be on all aspects of hormone action on cancer causation, progression, dependence, prevention, resistance and treatment. Translational studies, especially those utilizing novel cancer agents selectively designed to exert their action at hormone target tissues, will also be welcomed.

Springer and The Endocrine Society have worked together to create a highly respected, international editorial board that includes many of the leaders in this interdisciplinary field. The editorinchief will be Jonathan Li of the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutics at Kansas University School of Medicine in Kansas City, Kansas. Board members include V. Craig Jordan, the first to discover the breast cancer prevention properties of tamoxifen, and Kate Horwitz, Distinguished Professor of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes at the University of Colorado Denver, and Past President of The Endocrine Society.

“The timing of this journals launch could not be better,” said Kate Horwitz. “The disciplines of endocrinology and oncology have been artificially segregated for years. This is evident in factors as disparate as the divisional structure of departments of medicine and the layout of granting agency review panels. Cancers of hormoneproducing organs, and of organs that are the targets of hormones, represent a large and diverse group. Hormones & Cancer will now link them.”

“We are pleased to add Hormones & Cancer to The Endocrine Societys family of journals. It will create a home for this important field of research, which is a focus of many of our members, and a concern for our practitioners and their patients,” commented Margaret Shupnik, Publications Core Committee Chair, The Endocrine Society.

Henk van der Rijst, Executive Vice President, Biomedical and Life Sciences at Springer, said “Working with a prestigious society to disseminate critical information more widely is one of our core activities. Springer looks forward to a long and collaborative partnership with The Endocrine Society.”

Hormones & Cancer will be published bimonthly both electronically and in print. The journal will include Cross Reference Linking, alert services, and Online First™, a feature by which articles are published online before they appear in print. The journal will be available on SpringerLink.com, the worlds most comprehensive collection of scientific, technological, and medical journals, books and reference works.

Founded in 1916, The Endocrine Society is the worlds oldest, largest and most active organization devoted to research on hormones and the clinical practice of endocrinology. It is an international body, with 14,000 members from over 100 countries. The Endocrine Society publishes four worldrenowned journals and a monthly news magazine. It also holds scientific conferences, provides educational programs for physicians, issues clinical practice guidelines and promotes careers in endocrinology. The Society advocates for appropriate funding of scientific research in endocrinology and public policies that support the practice of clinical endocrinology.

Springer is a leading global scientific publisher of books and journals, delivering quality content through innovative information products and services. It publishes close to 500 academic and professional society journals. Springer is part of the publishing group Springer Science+Business Media. In the science, technology and medicine (STM) sector, the group publishes around 2,000 journals and more than 6,500 new books a year, as well as the largest STM eBook Collection worldwide. Springer has operations in about 20 countries in Europe, the USA, and Asia, and more than 5,000 employees.

Hormones & Cancer
ISSN 18688497 (print version), ISSN 18688500 (electronic version)

Source
Joan Robinson

Researchers have identified MEK4 as a proinvasion protein and the target for genistein, a dietary compound, in prostate cancer cells, according to a new study published online July 28 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Li Xu, M.D., Ph.D., and Raymond C. Bergan, M.D., of the Department of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, and colleagues investigated the target for genistein in prostate cancer cells by assessing cell invasion and gene and protein expression of mitogenactivated protein kinase 4 (MEK4) and matrix metalloproteinase2 (MMP2), which is associated with cell invasion.

Overexpression of MEK4 increased MMP2 expression and cell invasion in prostate cancer cells; decreased MEK4 expression had the opposite effect. Computer modeling showed that genistein could bind to the active site of MEK4, and an enzymatic assay showed that genistein inhibited MEK4 kinase activity. The MMP2 transcript level was statistically significantly higher in normal prostate epithelial cells, which are target cells for chemoprevention, from untreated patients with prostate cancer than from genisteintreated patients.

“Thus, we have shown that it is possible to target motilityassociated processes with genistein in patients with prostate cancer, have identified MEK4 as the therapeutic target for genistein in all six prostate cell lines examined, and have provided a possible mechanism to link high dietary consumption of genisteincontaining foods with lower rates of prostate cancer metastasis and mortality,” the authors write.

Source
Steve Graff

The U.S. Department of Energys Brookhaven National Laboratory and Hybridyne Imaging Technologies, Inc., of Toronto, Canada, have won a 2009 R&D 100 Award for developing a compact gamma camera for highresolution imaging of prostate cancer. The camera system, called ProxiScan, is a nuclear medical instrument that can localize cancer tissue in the prostate gland in detail at an early stage, which is important for the successful diagnosis and early treatment of the potentially deadly disease.

R&D Magazine gives R&D 100 Awards annually to the top 100 technological achievements of the year. Typically, these are innovations that transform basic science into useful products. The 2009 awards will be presented on November 12, in Orlando, Florida.

“The Department of Energys national laboratories are incubators of innovation, and Im proud they are being recognized once again for their remarkable work,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “The cuttingedge research and development being done in our national labs is vital to maintaining Americas competitive edge, increasing our nations energy security, and protecting our environment. I want to thank this years winners for their work and congratulate them on this award.”

The common way to diagnose prostate cancer the second leading cancer among men, next to lung cancer is through a blood test that measures the levels of a protein produced by the prostate gland called prostatespecific antigen, or PSA. Elevated PSA levels may indicate prostate cancer, but with a high number of falsepositive detections. Often, then, men must have an invasive biopsy, normally guided by ultrasound imagery. Other methods for confirming a diagnosis of prostate cancer include conventional nuclear medical imaging techniques, such as positron emission spectroscopy and single photon emission computed tomography.

However, the current imaging methods have limitations. Benign and cancerous tumors cannot easily be distinguished by ultrasound, and fibrous tissues can be mistakenly identified as tumors if patients have had radiation treatment of the prostate previously. Traditional nuclear imaging systems produce lowerresolution images and are less efficient than Brookhavens compact digital camera. Also, the detectors in current systems are too large to be used in transrectal probes.

In contrast, the new cadmium zinc telluride (CZT)based gamma camera is small enough for transrectal prostate cancer diagnosis, after the patient is injected with a tracer radiopharmaceutical. The highresolution CZT detector is the cuttingedge technology that drives the novel system. Using this new technology, the working distance between the imaging system and the prostate gland is minimized, allowing urologists to obtain better images with a smaller amount of injected radioactive tracer, compared to conventional nuclear medical systems.

“This project has been a great opportunity to take gammaray detector technology originally developed for national security and apply it toward important societal goals in the area of cancer diagnosis and treatment,” said Ralph James, a senior physicist at Brookhaven who is the Laboratorys principal coinventor of the technology together with Brookhaven associate scientist Yonggang Cui.

Cui added, “The CZT material combines the best aspects of conventional nuclear imaging detectors while minimizing their weaknesses. Our experience in detector development and electronics design has been critical in delivering this high performance system in a very compact package at a competitive cost.”

Although the CZTbased system was designed to reveal prostate cancer, it can be modified for imaging other cancers, such as cervical, uterine, colorectal and breast cancers. It can also be optimized for surgical use as a probe to guide the removal of cancerous tumors while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissues.

CZT detectors have fostered the development of new instruments for measuring radiation. Numerous medical, industrial, scientific, environmental and homelandsecurity applications exist for this technology, including handheld instruments to reduce the trafficking of nuclear materials and portable field instruments for environmental monitoring and remediation.

The U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Office of Nonproliferation Research and Development has been the principal sponsor funding the development of CZT detectors, and Hybridyne Imaging Technologies funded the design and engineering of the new compact gamma camera. The inventors have 16 patents on the technology, ranging from detector design and fabrication to imaging. Brookhaven Science Associates, the company that manages Brookhaven Lab, has a patent pending on the advanced CZT detectors.

Source
Diane Greenberg

According to results of a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, men with prostate cancer who consumed the active compounds in green tea demonstrated a significant reduction in serum markers predictive of prostate cancer progression.

“The investigational agent used in the trial, Polyphenon E (provided by Polyphenon Pharma) may have the potential to lower the incidence and slow the progression of prostate cancer,” said James A. Cardelli, Ph.D., professor and director of basic and translational research in the FeistWeiller Cancer Center, LSU Health Sciences CenterShreveport.

Green tea is the second most popular drink in the world, and some epidemiological studies have shown health benefits with green tea, including a reduced incidence of prostate cancer, according to Cardelli. However, some human trials have found contradictory results. The few trials conducted to date have evaluated the clinical efficacy of green tea consumption and few studies have evaluated the change in biomarkers, which might predict disease progression.

Cardelli and colleagues conducted this openlabel, singlearm, phase II clinical trial to determine the effects of shortterm supplementation with green teas active compounds on serum biomarkers in patients with prostate cancer. The biomarkers include hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and prostate specific antigen (PSA). HGF and VEGF are good prognostic indicators of metastatic disease.

The study included 26 men, aged 41 to 72 years, diagnosed with prostate cancer and scheduled for radical prostatectomy. Patients consumed four capsules containing Polyphenon E until the day before surgery four capsules are equivalent to about 12 cups of normally brewed concentrated green tea, according to Cardelli. The time of study for 25 of the 26 patients ranged from 12 days to 73 days, with a median time of 34.5 days.

Findings showed a significant reduction in serum levels of HGF, VEGF and PSA after treatment, with some patients demonstrating reductions in levels of greater than 30 percent, according to the researchers.

Cardelli and colleagues found that other biomarkers were also positively affected. There were only a few reported side effects associated with this study, and liver function remained normal.

Results of a recent yearlong clinical trial conduced by researchers in Italy demonstrated that consumption of green tea polyphenols reduced the risk of developing prostate cancer in men with highgrade prostate intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN).

“These studies are just the beginning and a lot of work remains to be done, however, we think that the use of tea polyphenols alone or in combination with other compounds currently used for cancer therapy should be explored as an approach to prevent cancer progression and recurrence,” Cardelli said.

William G. Nelson, V., M.D., Ph.D., professor of oncology, urology and pharmacology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, believes the reduced serum biomarkers of prostate cancer may be attributable to some sort of benefit relating to green tea components.

“Unfortunately, this trial was not a randomized trial, which would have been needed to be more sure that the observed changes were truly attributable to the green tea components and not to some other lifestyle change (better diet, taking vitamins, etc.) men undertook in preparation for surgery,” added Nelson, who is also a senior editor for Cancer Prevention Research. However, “this trial is provocative enough to consider a more substantial randomized trial.”

In collaboration with Columbia University in New York City, the researchers are currently conducting a comparable trial among patients with breast cancer. They also plan to conduct further studies to identify the factors that could explain why some patients responded more dramatically to Polyphenon E than others. Cardelli suggested that additional controlled clinical trials should be done to see if combinations of different plant polyphenols were more effective than Polyphenon E alone.

“There is reasonably good evidence that many cancers are preventable, and our studies using plantderived substances support the idea that plant compounds found in a healthy diet can play a role in preventing cancer development and progression,” said Cardelli.

The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is the worlds oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. The membership includes more than 28,000 basic, translational and clinical researchers; health care professionals; and cancer survivors and advocates in the United States and nearly 90 other countries. The AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise from the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through highquality scientific and educational programs. It funds innovative, meritorious research grants. The AACR Annual Meeting attracts more than 17,000 participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the field. Special conferences throughout the year present novel data across a wide variety of topics in cancer research, treatment and patient care. The AACR publishes six major peerreviewed journals Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention; and Cancer Prevention Research. The AACR also publishes CR, a magazine for cancer survivors and their families, patient advocates, physicians and scientists. CR provides a forum for sharing essential, evidencebased information and perspectives on progress in cancer research, survivorship and advocacy.