Funded Research 2004

Cyto-Raman Microscopy in Prostate Cancer
Professor Peter W Hamilton, Biomedical Imaging and Informatics Laboratory, Queen's University Belfast

There are two principal issues in the management of prostate cancer:

• The identification and characterisation of precursors of disease such as prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) and its role in studying disease development and progression.
• To identify patient response to hormonal therapy and identify the underlying mechanism for the development of hormonal resistance.

The identification of early prostate lesions and predictive biomarkers for prognosis are still largely carried out by microscopic assessment of stained tissue and cell structures. The major disadvantage is that simple visual inspection by the human eye is subjective and can lead to misinterpretation and inaccurate diagnosis. Gleason grading for example, is highly subjective and poorly reproducible. Also, as only broad biological constituents are labelled with histological stains, diagnosis classifications are also broad and subtle alterations in tumour phenotype (with its clinical implications) may be missed. There are therefore major opportunities to develop novel approaches to the analysis of prostate neoplasia using new microscopic imaging modalities.

His study aims to define the role of Raman microscopy in the identification of cytochemometric biomarkers of neoplastic progression and of response to hormonal therapy in prostate neoplasia. For the first time, this will be carried out at the microscopic level to identify cell specific changes in chemical composition associated with BPH, PIN and Cancer and to identify invasive prostate cancers that rapidly escape from hormonal therapy.

 

Project commenced
June 2004

Length of project
2 years

Amount Supported
£62,610

 

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