FROM THE PRESIDENT

Medical breakthroughs are nothing new to the Texas Medical Center. Over the years, research conducted at TMC institutions has resulted in amazing advances in the treatment of countless conditions, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and liver disease, to name a few.

Now comes the news of incredible findings over the last several months that will change the way prostate cancer is detected, treated, and conquered. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have discovered a gene that, when injected into animals with prostate cancer, kills prostate cancer cells and creates a long-lasting resistance to related cancer outside the prostate gland. Within the next year, human subjects will be recruited for a clinical study to test the gene’s effectiveness.

Just as the body’s immune system attacks germs, this new discovery signals the immune system to attack cancer. Currently, there is no effective treatment for metastatic prostate cancer, but this new discovery could change that.

At the same time this research was taking shape at Baylor, researchers at the Houston VA Medical Center were in the process of making an amazing discovery of their own. After extensive research studies, they found a method that appears to halt prostate cancer cell growth and holds promise as a future cancer treatment.

By disrupting the way cells “communicate,” it appears that the growth of prostate cancer cells can be halted. Breast cancer and leukemia treatments are already seeing clinical use of this technique. VA researchers now are attempting to understand how it works in controlling prostate cancer. With their discovery, the light at the end of the tunnel grows brighter.

In addition to these promising treatment options, a Baylor researcher has just announced the development of a new test to compliment the traditional prostate specific androgen, or PSA, exam for men, which detects prostate cancer. When added to the current PSA exam that men over age 50 should get each year, this new test will tell more specifically whether cancer cells have the potential of spreading outside the prostate. The current PSA test does not tell us whether the cancer will turn out to be more deadly, but this new test does. This knowledge will give doctors the upper hand in early detection and treatment of prostate cancer.

E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu
URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/11_01_02/page_27.html