A glowing dye that sticks to prostate cancer cells could give doctors a ‘second pair of eyes’ to eradicate the disease, scientists at University of Oxford have found.
The fluorescent dye highlights areas of cancerous tissue not picked up by the naked eye during surgery, allowing surgeons to remove the cells before they spread.
Professor Freddie Hamdy, lead researcher of the study at Oxford said the results of the dye were ‘promising’.
‘It’s the first time we’ve managed to see such fine details of prostate cancer in real-time during surgery. With this technique, we can strip all the cancer away, including the cells that have spread from the tumour which could give it the chance to come back later,’ he said.
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Funded by Cancer Research UK (CRUK), 23 men diagnosed with prostate cancer were recruited in the study and injected with the marker dye before undergoing surgery to remove their prostates.
The fluorescent dye attached itself to a protein called prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), commonly found on the surface of prostate cancer cells and highlighted the areas they had spread into, such as the pelvis and lymph nodes. A special imaging system was then used to shine a light on the prostate and nearby regions, making the prostate cancer cells glow. This allowed the surgeons to remove cancer cells while preserving healthy tissue.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. With about 52,300 new cases every year, Dr Iain Foulkes, executive director of research and innovation at CRUK has called for ‘better tools’ to spot cancers and prevent further spread.
‘The combined marker dye and imaging system that this research has developed could fundamentally transform how we treat prostate cancer in the future,’ he said.
A larger trial by CRUK, called the Promote study, will test the effectiveness of the dye in more patients and whether it can be adapted to use in surgery for other types of cancers.