Cytgoen's Prostacint used in cancer imaging

USA-based biopharmaceutical firm Cytogen says that data from a seven-year survival study suggest that its imaging product Prostacint (capromab pendetide) may help predict which patients are most likely to benefit from brachytherapy for prostate cancer. The findings, which are published in the current on-line edition of the American Brachytherapy journal, indicate that the product, a monoclonal antibody that targets the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), is useful in establishing the extent and distribution of the disease.

The study evaluated the use of Prostacint fusion imagining to define the subsequent brachytherapy treatment of 239 patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer. The agent was found to predict disease-free survival, with a cure rate of 90.6% in patients whose scans indicated local disease, versus 66.1% in those with distant disease.

Lead study author Rodney Ellis, an oncologist at the Case School of Medicine in Cleveland, USA, said: "the continued improvement in this type of imaging technology has now led to a refinement in treatment planning based on the fused images." He went on to say that the data show that the product can be used to develop patient-specific treatment programs.