US oncology expertise to spread globally
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and GE Healthcare plan to establish over 25 local cancer centres in various countries within the coming decade.
Prostate cancer
In vivo biopsy for histological analysis
Early suspicions of cancer, either from clinical evidence or medical imaging, are often followed up on biopsy. However, the removal of tissue for histological analysis can be uncomfortable for patients.
Prostate cancer: Urine test instead of biopsy?
Currently, early detection of Prostate Cancer depends on an abnormal digital rectal examination and an elevated prostate-specific-antigen (PSA) level requiring a prostate biopsy, often associated with anxiety, discomfort, complications, and heavy expenses. The prostate-cancer-gene-3 (PCA3) test is a new PCa gene-based marker carried out with a urine sample.
Robot-assisted prostatectomy in practical use
At the Medizin Innovativ 2008 congress (9-10 July, Nuremburg, Germany) Professor Jens-Uwe Stolzenburg MD (right), Director of the Urology Clinic and Polyclinic at the University Hospital Leipzig, talked about his experiences with the da Vinci robot. Used by surgeons at University Hospital Leipzig since last October 2007, they performed 40 operations in the first two months.
Laparoscopy in urology
Laparoscopy is playing an increasingly important role in urology and centres of excellence have been established to provide training in urological laparoscopic surgery.
Sono-elastography
Martini Clinic, in the University Hospital Eppendorf (UKE) campus in Hamburg, is one of the world's major centres for nerve-sparing prostatectomy. The Martini physicians not only specialise in surgical intervention but are also at the cutting edge of diagnostics, being among the few in Germany to use sono-elastography, an innovative tool to detect prostate cancer. We asked Dr Georg Salomon (GS),…
Welcome to ESTRO 27
More than 4,500 cancer and radiotherapy specialists will gather in Göteborg, Sweden, this September for the 27th annual congress of ESTRO. ESTRO 27 is to be held between the 14th and 18th September 2008 at the Göteborg Convention Centre in Göteborg.
Prostate scanning too often performed?
Experts on a US panel expressed their doubts on the beneficial quality of prostate cancer screenings for elderly men. Prostate cancer often grows very slowly and may not kill an older man before he suffers from another death reason, they pointed out.
Elastography - ready to go
The idea of measuring tissue stiffness using ultrasound is nothing new. But lately the field sets a rapid pace. “Real-time, hand-held elastography is now a commercial reality,” asserts Jonathan Ophir from the University of Texas Medical School.
New proton therapy software tool
Proton therapy is very sophisticated way of destroying tumours. Now the Swedish Medical company RaySearch Laboratories has signed a consulting agreement with Uppsala University Hospital in Sweden to develop a treatment-planning system.
Tomotherapy system targets cancer more precisely
When tumours are situated in difficult locations, e.g. near the brain, lungs, prostate or abdomen, patients treated with conventional radiation equipment often suffer severe side effects, which include bleeding, chronic infections or organ function limitations.
Cancer care advances — but at what cost?
Although incremental improvements in cancer care were unveiled at the 44th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology held in Chicago, USA, — the world's largest gathering of cancer specialists, our correspondent Ian Mason writes that, even as new study results were being reported, their cost implications for stretched healthcare budgets were questioned.
14,000 urologists flock to EAU 2008
Nearly 14 000 urologists from 84 countries attended the 23rd Annual congress of the European Association of Urology held in Milan, where changing horizons in the diagnosis and therapy of prostate cancer, a symposium sponsored by Ipsen, underlined the main focus of the entire event.
Image-guided radiation therapy
Artiste is a linear accelerator and CT scanner combined. At the German Cancer Research Centre, a team of scientists led by Professors Wolfgang Schlegel and Uwe Oelfke of the Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology division, contributed substantially to the technical development of the Artiste platform. They report that users will be able to observe and correct the actual position, extension and…
Radiation treatment decisions in patients with prostate cancer and suspected lymph node metastasis based on USPIO-MRI
Prostate cancer is the most frequent cancer in men with about 49,000 newly diagnosed cancers in Germany and 6,000 in the Netherlands, annually.
PET-CT for radiation therapy planning:
For individualised radiotherapy, high-precision delineation and characterisation of the tumour is critical. If highest radiation doses are delivered in a targeted fashion, the chance of tumour cell kill increases and tumour control probability is enhanced.
MR probes for molecular imaging
Molecular imaging aims at the in vivo quantitative visualisation of molecules and molecular events that occur at cellular level. The potential towards clinical translation is huge, because the same modalities used in medical imaging are used in molecular imaging investigations.
Cancer will kill 7.6 million people this year
A new American Cancer Society report estimates that there will be over 12 million new cancer cases and 7.6 million cancer deaths (about 20,000 cancer deaths a day) worldwide in 2007. The estimate comes from the first-ever Global Cancer Facts & Figures, the latest addition to the American Cancer Society's family of Facts & Figures publications.
Automated urinalysis systems
Roche's product portfolio includes three systems for urinary diagnostics, all of which use the proven Combur test strips.
New ways of working: innovation in cancer nursing practice
Change is occurring at a rapid rate in cancer care - in many European countries cancer services are now being provided primarily in an ambulatory or outpatient setting with subsequent change of resources. Karen Luker, Professor of Community Nursing at the Universtiy of Manchester, UK, thinks that specialist nurses should not only refresh their knowledge of existing and new therapies. As the face…
FRANCE: Thousands will lose healthcare cover
"If you think 53 makes you old enough to retire, then fine, go ahead and retire. But don't expect the state to pay for it." President Nicolas Sarkozy, during his election campaign
The European Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC)
The ERSPC is the world's biggest study of screening of prostate cancer. It involves up to 260,000 men, 220,000 of them in the age group 55-75 years old. Professor Chris Bangma, Director of the ERSPC and Chairman of the urology department at the Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam (headquarters of the ERSPC) explains the study's background and aims
Embracing Excellence in Prostate and Kidney Cancer
The first European Multidisciplinary Meeting on Urological Cancers will take place in Barcelona, Spain, November 2nd to 4th, 2007. The meeting is co-organized by the European Association of Urology (EAU), the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO).
In-vivo and in-vitro diagnostics in molecular medicine
In molecular medicine - and particularly in oncology - Siemens Medical Solutions is concentrating on further development of the FDG (fluorodeoxyglucose) biomarker to improve identification of certain tumours.
Taking a dive into the 21st Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery Congress
Emphasis on advances in the use of computer assisted radiology and surgery (CARS) technologies in clinical diagnoses and therapies, will herald the opening of CARS this year.
