New diagnostic spectroscopic test could pave the way for prostate cancer detection. Prostate cancer, the leading cancer in men, is challenging to be diagnosed at an early stage when mostly asymptomatic, or indistinguishable from other urinary problems. The current methods for reliably detecting and distinguishing early prostate cancer lesions are not feasible without tissue biopsies. New infrared spectroscopic method to analyze exprimate urine, could possibly be a new game changer. Non-invasive and without radiation hazard. Prostate cancer, the leading cancer in men, is challenging to be diagnosed at an early stage when mostly asymptomatic, or indistinguishable from other urinary problems. The current methods for reliably detecting and distinguishing early prostate cancer lesions are not feasible without tissue biopsies. New infrared spectroscopic method to analyze exprimate urine, could possibly be a new game changer. Non-invasive and without radiation hazard.
The new clinical study “Infrared Spectroscopy of Blood and Exprimate Urine for Prostate Cancer Detection” provides proof-of-concept for the ability of a drop of exprimate urine to reveal prostate cancer. The study is inherently interdisciplinary - combining efforts of laser physics, molecular biology and prostate oncology. It was initiated end of January at the Ludwig Maximilans University (LMU) Hospital, Department of Urology in Munich. At the clinic, Dr. Michael Chaloupka is leading the study, that is managed by the Broadband Infrared Diagnostics (BIRD) clinical study team. Together, they have not only defined the framework of the study, but already successfully enrolled the first patients into the study.
In addition to the clinical team in the hospital at Großhadern, located south of Munich, the investigations are going on in the north of Munich, at the LMU in Garching, just as well. There, researchers of the BIRD team are applying latest advances in infrared spectroscopy and ultrashort pulsed lasers to build a prostate cancer detection test - based on infrared molecular analysis of human exprimate urine. They will compare of the molecular makeup of exprimate urine and blood plasma from patients with prostate cancer, with these from control individuals.
Infrared fingerprinting analyzes organic molecules to decipher healthy and prostate cancer states by studying the dynamic biochemical suite found in the bodily fluids. The presence of prostate cancer, with its altered physiology and pathology, can cause changes in the exprimate urine. And this is where the new approach comes in: The researchers will measure infrared profiles using infrared spectroscopy on the samples coming from the clinic. They have a new tool, an ultrashort pulsed laser device, that can examine an array of compounds by measuring the collective infrared molecular fingerprints within a single measurement only.
It is up to the future results to see whether the infrared molecular fingerprints of exprimate urine from men with or without prostate cancer are any different. The quest for testing the new technology and thus the new way of sensing prostate cancer is on, and the efforts are set afloat!