More on Prostascint false positives from Puddycat 5 on AOL:
Hello SI people:
I am sorry I have to post this through andy, but I just am not going to pay money for the pleasure of posting here. However, I do read what you post.
I would like to say that the concerns regarding the false positives are concerning you too much. Prostascint has always been known to have false positives...that has never been a secret.
Moreover, it is also no secret that the scans are challenging to read.
However, I do NOT believe that this will cause physicians not to use the prostascint scan because there is NOTHING else to compete with it.
Moreover, time will be the friend of the prostascint scan. Dr. Blend from the University of Illinois has, as many of you know, created a technique where he uses a dual isotope (indium and technicium) and enhances the picture on the scan by imaging both agents, and removing the cloudy images via a computer, thus leaving a big red dot where the cancer resides.
Dr. Blend recently published a paper on the topic. I believe that the FDA is aware of this procedure and will someday...my guess is in 5 months, receive a request from Dr. Blend, not from cytogen, to have this procedure approved for use. Cytogen cannot do that because it is not approved for use. However, I know that Dr. Blend is in fact getting his method used by others around the company. I know that for one, because he presented his paper at the nuclear medicine conference.
This method increases the 65% accuracy by 55% or so, to around 95% or so!!!!!!!!!
The method will gain popularity quickly now, I am sure, and I bet you will see further papers published on the results of other places doing the same thing as Dr. Blend. IF YOU DO, and I am guessing here, that will confirm my SUSPICION that Blend will seek FDA approval for the procedure. And the approval time will be short, as procedures of this nature do not present complicated issues for the FDA.
After all, at the time the papers was written, 30% of his results were already CONFIRMED by biopsy, and there were NO mistakes!!! This procedure is PURE GOLD, and after it is accepted, the use of the prostascint scan should SKYROCKET! |
