Oncology Round-Up: Distinguishing Prostate Cancer Lesions, Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors; and More

Differential Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer Lesions With ¹⁸F-DCFPyL

In an article in Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases, investigators evaluated the incremental diagnostic value of ¹⁸F-DCFPyL,an imaging agent, in dual-phase PET/CT imaging in patients with prostate cancer (PC). According to the co-primary investigators, Aijuan Tian, Runlong Lin, and Jing Yu, “uptake of ¹⁸F-DCFPyL increased over time in prostate-associated malignant lesions compared with benign tissue.”

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DNA Mismatch Repair Protein Expression in Patients With Cutaneous Melanoma

In a recent article, published in the Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology, researchers examined the protein expression levels of DNA mismatch repair (MMR) proteins in patients with cutaneous melanoma (CM), the most common type of skin cancer, who were undergoing immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy. Lead author, T. Gambichler, and colleagues from Ruhr-University Bochum in Bochum, Germany, observed reduced MMR protein expression levels in patients with CM, and proposed that low expression “might predict favorable [best overall response (BOR)] in patients treated with ICI, as was observed for other entities.”

Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors Used in HIV Therapies Stop Disease Progression in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

New research published in Cancer Discovery found an HIV drug used in treatment therapies, known as Iamivudine, stops disease progression in 25 percent of patients with fourth-line metastatic colorectal cancer. Past research from the National Center for Biotechnology Information found HIV patients receiving lifelong three-drug anti-retroviral therapy had a notably lower risk of colon, breast, and prostate cancer. Dr. David T. Ting, MD, of the Mass General Cancer Center, theorizes this type of therapy might prevent cancer, recurrence, or turn a metastatic disease into something more chronic like HIV.