NEW YORK, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- “Prostate cancer is a disease that is always evolving and science is working hard to keep up with it,” said Dr. David Samadi, a robotic surgery expert with years of prostate cancer treatment experience, who is also the Chief of the Division of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery in the Department of Urology at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. And now, according to a report in the journal Science, scientists have discovered a cell, called the “mother” of all prostate tumors. The study was conducted on test mice with suppressed immune systems, whereby samples of the “basal” cells taken from healthy human prostate tissue triggered cancer in the mice.
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The results of this study imply that these basal cells are the main drivers behind prostate cancer. Previously scientists believed it was a luminal cell, a different type of immature cell that triggered prostate cancer. “Exciting discoveries such as these will hopefully lead to better diagnostic options and more effective prostate cancer treatment options,” explained Dr. Samadi.
More interesting prostate cancer news came from a report in the American Journal of Epidemiology, where it was reported that a daily dose of aspirin could reduce the risk of prostate cancer by almost a third. The report supports the theory that inflammation is key in the disease. The findings were discovered after scientists monitored 1,000 prostate cancer patients and a similar number of healthy men found that daily use of low-dose aspirin lowered the risk of prostate cancer diagnosis by 29 percent. Long-term aspirin use, for more than five years, resulted in a 24 percent reduced risk. Ibuprofen did not provide the same effects and was not influenced by disease aggressiveness.
“Previously, scientists had thought that anti-inflammatory drugs could combat cancer by inhibiting cell production which brought on the self-destruction of malignant cells, and reduced tumor spread,” explained Dr. Samadi. “The final analysis means that inflammation definitely plays a role in the development of prostate cancer and should be supported in treatment.” Samadi has long touted the benefits of aspirin as a popular and inexpensive medication, and now even more so as an effective preventive agent for inflammation in prostate cancer.
In a report based in Sweden, a study analyzed 22,511 brothers of 13,975 prostate cancer patients and found that the incidence of early-stage prostate cancer was higher among brothers of prostate cancer patients. The disease incidence was highest with men who had two brothers with prostate cancer. Additionally, the incidence of prostate cancer among brothers of prostate cancer patients was highest the first year after the brother’s diagnosis. “This study will put a bigger spotlight on family history as a risk factor for prostate cancer and could help doctors provide better guidance and treatment options,” said Dr. Samadi.
SOURCE RoboticOncology.com
