A simulation of the prostate could actually slow tumor growth, according to simulations

For men over 60, the hypertrophy of the prostate means the urge to stop too often throughout the day.

But a new study shows that while these men also have prostate cancer, the larger prostate prevents tumor growth.

The findings suggest that it might be a bad idea to reduce the size of the prostate by means of surgery or medications as this could lead to faster growth of prostate cancer. While the five-year survival rate for prostate cancer is generally very high, it remains one of the leading causes of death among men in the United States, according to the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

Computer simulations of patient data offer a possible explanation for why prostate enlargement can save lives: as a prostate can only develop in a confined space, the force accumulates and exerts pressure. on the tumor, keeping it so reduced.

"We already know that forces and stresses have an impact on tumor growth and that patients with enlarged prostate tend to have slower growth of cancer, but we do not know why," said Hector Gomez, professor Associate of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, who builds models and simulations to understand tumor growth, cell migration and blood flow.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to simulate the possible effects of benign prostatic hyperplasia, a disease that causes progressive enlargement of the prostate, on prostate cancer tumors.

Guillermo Lorenzo, a former Gomez doctoral student who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pavia in Italy, has done most research and conducted simulations. Alessandro Reali and Pablo Dominguez-Frojan also participated in the study and are co-authors.

Gomez and Thomas Hughes, professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin, kicked off the project as part of their work on using computer simulations to improve diagnosis and the prognosis of prostate cancer.

"Current diagnostic and prognostic methods have struggled to differentiate between patients who are at high risk for prostate cancer and those who are not," said Gomez. "This has led people to be over-treated or subcontracted."

Studying the relationship between prostate enlargement and prostate cancer could bring new perspectives.

The study examined data from patients participating in medical studies with a history of enlarged prostate and prostate cancer. To perform the simulations, Lorenzo extracted a three-dimensional anatomical image of the prostate and tumor localizations from MRI images.

At the end of a one – year period, simulations showed that the tumor of a patient with a history of prostate hypertrophy had grown very little. When researchers withdrew the history of an enlarged prostate in the program, the tumor had become six times larger at the end of the same period.

"But we now know that the mechanical stresses generated by prostate enlargement hinder tumor growth," said Hughes.

Realistically, these results should be validated clinically in humans through a long-term observational study before physicians take action. In the meantime, researchers plan to expand their model to incorporate the effects of prostate-reducing drugs, and use the model information on prostate deformity to help detect cancer.

Provided by
Purdue University