Conventional and Contrast-Assisted Frequency Functional Ultrasound for Imaging of Prostate Cancer Extent and Response in Human Cancer Patients

This project is an early validation study in human subjects that will use ultrasound imaging and spectroscopy to predict the tumour extent before treatment so that this may allow the most appropriate treatment intervention to be individualised to patients. For examples, patients with evidence of extra-prostatic tissue involvement may be best served with definitive radiation therapy rather than radical prostatectomy as surgery alone in this situation, is not optimum. Furthermore, these ultrasound parameters may be used to monitor cell death occurring at various time points during patients' radiation treatment for prostate cancer.

The research is exploratory since upon data analysis it will examine the use of different ultrasound parameters as potential markers of pre-treatment tumour extent and cell death, and correlate these with tumour shrinkage and complete pathological response. Sensitivity and specificity values for the various ultrasound parameters will be calculated for the different time points used and receiver-operator curves will be generated. From this data the investigators will potentially estimate the best time-points at which to make a prediction about patient response and the best ultrasound-spectroscopy variables to use for this purpose.