Nanoparticle-Based Contrast Enhancement for Discriminating Indolent From Aggressive Prostate Cancer
Abstract
This proposal aims to develop a new imaging technique that will enable earlier detection of clinically relevant prostate cancer and help doctors to distinguish between aggressive cancers that need immediate therapy and more slowly growing indolent tumors that can be passively followed through watchful waiting or active surveillance management. Specifically, the approach proposed here will image metallic and polymer nanoparticles as they congregate within cancer regions of the prostate. Researchers are developing proteins that can seek out and bind specifically to prostate cancer cells. These proteins can be bound to metallic or polymer nanoparticles and suspended in a liquid solution that can ultimately be injected directly into the prostate or into the blood stream of the patient. These hybrid nanoparticles (protein + core nanoparticle) will seek out and bind to prostate cancer cells. Techniques have been proposed to image how these nanoparticles are concentrated within organs using technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); however, this type of imaging procedure typically requires an additional office visit to schedule the MRI, takes 30-60 minutes to set the patient up and acquire the MR image, is very expensive, and requires men to lie still within the small bore of the MRI machine. We propose to develop a technique to image these nanoparticles that is extremely low cost, could be used directly in the doctor s office, will provide real-time feedback, is safe, and can be done repeatedly for those men put on more active surveillance type approaches requiring multiple visits to their doctor to check on their prostate cancer. The proposed technique will use electrical property sensing devices that researchers have developed for imaging the prostate. We hypothesize that as nanoparticles congregate within the prostate the electrical properties of the prostate will change. For example, if metal nanoparticles are injected into a man and bind to prostate cancer cells, the high electrical conductivity of the metal particles will cause the overall conductivity of the prostate in the region of these nanoparticle to increase. Alternatively, if polymer-based nanoparticles are injected, we would expect the conductivity to decrease if there are prostate cancer cells that these particles bind to. Researchers have been developing electrical property sensing techniques to image the prostate (since cancer and benign prostate tissues have different electrical properties). We propose to use these technologies to image nanoparticle concentrations within the prostate. We hypothesize that for high-grade, more aggressive tumors, more nanoparticles will be concentrated within the prostate; these higher concentrations will cause larger changes in the electrical properties of the prostate. Imaging these concentration levels will help to define the volume and grade of the prostate cancer and ultimately help define more appropriate patient-specific treatment guidance. This technology will specifically be useful for (1) men suspected of having prostate cancer due to an elevated PSA or abnormal DRE (any nanoparticle detection may help to confirm the diagnosis) and (2) men recently diagnosed with prostate cancer (detection of large concentration of nanoparticles may be more indicative of aggressive prostate cancer needing immediate treatment). In both cases, men would be scanned with electrical property imaging prior to injection of the nanoparticles and then scanned after the nanoparticles have been injected. Images from before and after injection would be compared so that regions of elevated electrical properties can be identified. The regions of the prostate that change after injection would be those regions in which the most nanoparticle have congregated. This proposal will investigate how sensitive electrical property sensing devices are to changes in concentration of these nanoparticles in both bench-top experiments and
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 04, 2016
- Source ID
- W81XWH1510102
Entities
People
- Ryan Halter
Organizations
- Dartmouth College
- United States Army