‘New cancer diagnosis improves treatments’

window of opportunity. for John Anthony VallejoHead of the Department of Nuclear Medicine at Reina Sofia University Hospital in Córdoba New techniques for diagnosing prostate cancer Specifically, computerized tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT PSMA) machinesThey will “change the facial features and modernize” health care From the National Health System (SNS).

Currently, PET/CT PSMA It is used in Spain in clinical trials and in routine clinical practice on demand And a license from the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (Aemps), but Subject to accessibility and funding for each center. So it was used in 2021 only in 1,800 patients, out of more than 35,700 diagnosed.

For this reason, Vallejo announced medical writing, who – which Hopes that “in a few months” Aemps approval will be obtained So that “it can be used in a healthy way and without the need to report to each patient” as it currently is, and until “oncological committees at the centers themselves determine the usefulness” of these techniques. In this sense, it ensures that “Nuclear medicine specialists have been working for a few years to prepare for this situationIn fact, I think right now that’s probably what we’re working with extensively on prostate cancer trackers and PSMA.”

Likewise, it argues that according to the results of recent clinical trials conducted in countries such as Australia, “which is one of the most advanced in this matter”, it shows that “the performance of PET with PSMA as an entry test compared to trials with conventional techniques such as CT or imaging Bone scintigraphy for patient selection is a short-efficiency procedure, It is a more precise procedure and a less different procedure And that it also chooses patients better, since we will have to use it for selection.”

in our country, It is estimated that one in three patients with prostate cancer will experience a relapse of the disease after surgery or radiotherapy. This is because of the disease itself and also because of the limitations of some of the imaging techniques currently in use.

Recently, Vallejo, along with other nuclear medicine reviewers, participated in a study titled ‘Microimaging in the treatment of prostate cancer: PET/CT PSMA. Analysis of needs and opportunities in Spain–Here you can download it– , an initiative of the Spanish Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (Semnim) with the support of Oncoretos and Janssen . Collaboration. It is estimated that a combination of positron emission tomography (PET) and computerized tomography (CT) techniques provides an accuracy of 92 percent for detecting spread of prostate cancer, compared to 65 percent for standard images. This high accuracy, along with its impact on handling, contributed to its inclusion in manuals European Association of Urology (EAU, for its English acronym) for the detection of primary and recurrent diseases.

In this sense, as stated by the Head of the Nuclear Medicine Service at the Reina Sofia University Hospital in Córdoba, the PET / CT PSMA Allows improved “tumor organization”, in addition to helping health professionals make decisions, whether when providing topical treatment (surgery or radiotherapy). It also has advantages in using more advanced treatments when the cancer has already spread, Thus improving the management of prostate cancer patients.

Thus, these new technologies “They open up a very wide range, from case to initial diagnosis in prostate canceruntil the establishment of a therapeutic process.” He points out, “This is what we know in nuclear medicine as diagnosis,” which is “using the same molecule for diagnosis as treatment.”

“And thereforeIt helps us to better choose the initial treatment and avoid patient side effectsfrom a treatment that will not contribute to anything, with lost access to this treatment “in the case of a preliminary diagnosis.” In the rest It will allow us to better classify patients for the treatment processwill allow us to select patients with low tumor burden and separate them from those with high tumor burden,” Trenches Vallejo.