NVLS / VPAC1

In 2010, more than 30,000 men will succumb to Prostate Cancer (PC)  and >240,000 new PC cases will be identified in the USA. PC affects one in every 6 men who are 60 years or older and affects African-Americans at a rate 2.4 times greater than European-Americans. Great strides have been made both in diagnosis and treatment of PC. However, neither the PC-related death rate has declined, nor the quality of life of survivors has yet improved. Three prominent screening tests, digital rectal examination, MRI, and prostate specific antigen (PSA) determination play a significant role in detecting pathologically advanced PC.

 They are less reliable for early warning of PC nor can they be used reliably to detect recurrent cancer or to determine metastatic disease. The lack of reliable diagnosis, results in undertreatment or overtreatment of patients with minimal benefit, enormous morbidity, incontinence, and/or impotence. Therefore, histology remains the mainstay of PC confirmation. However, out of >750,000 biopsies performed each year in the USA, >65% show benign pathology, and cost hundreds of millions of healthcare dollars. Various imaging techniques have been evaluated, but their utility to image suspected PC or its metastatic lesions is not fully dependable. Furthermore, monitoring the effectiveness of PC therapy continues to be a challenge.

  Our approach to diagnois PC, its metastases, and recurrence is driven by targeting an endogenous genetic product overexpressed when cells suffer genetic damage that ignites cancerous transformation. These characteristic fingerprints, the VPAC1 cell surface receptors, express themselves at the onset of the malignancy, may be prior to elevation of PSA, and well before cell morphology is altered. Thus VPAC1 receptors provide a specific target that has not yet been exploited for imaging suspected PC or its metastases.