New Scanning Method Detects Prostate Cancers

Boston (DbTechNo) - There is a new weapon for doctors to use to diagnose prostate cancer in its early stage.

Currently diagnosing prostate cancer is not easy to do, as in many cases the tumor is hard to locate inside the prostate.

Using a magnetic resonance spectroscopy scanner, the research team from Massachusetts General Hospital state they were able to track a tumor inside the prostate.

They did this by analyzing biochemistry of the tissue, to look for any abnormal cells that were present.

“It detects tumors that cannot be found with other imaging approaches and may give us information that can help determine the best course of treatment,” said lead researcher Leo Cheng.

When it comes to treating prostate cancer many factors are taken into consideration.

For a slow growing tumor, a wait and see approach is often recommended because it takes the tumor so long to actually grow and sometimes, other health factors contribute to the death of the patient over time anyway.

For more agressive tumors, surgery is an option along with radiation therapy.

“The current imaging technology cannot see where the cancer is. Even when we found the cancer through biopsy, we do not know if it is aggressive or not,” Cheng told Reuters.