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 ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Each year, more than 230,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, but there hasn't been a reliable way to tell just how aggressive each cancer will be. Some may be harmless and not grow at all -- while some may be fatal. Now, a new method can tell the difference.
Sy Saliba has a passion for photography, but his mind has been pre-occupied lately. Saliba has prostate cancer. He knew the disease can progress very slowly, but that did little to ease his anxiety. "A little bit of cancer or a lot of cancer is like a little bit of pregnancy. I mean, who cares? You have cancer," he says.
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Radiologist Gary Onik, M.D., says a standard biopsy can't tell how aggressive a cancer is. Sometimes, it doesn't even find it. "Eighty-five percent of patients by that biopsy method may be missing their cancer," Dr. Onik, of Celebration Health in Celebration, Fla., tells Ivanhoe.
 The standard method grabs less than 12 samples. This new 3-D mapping technique can take many more.
Dr. Onik likens it to playing battleship with the prostate. With a grid, a needle can pluck dozens of samples through the skin and tell doctors exactly where the cancer is. It can pick up cancers the standard biopsy missed.
"We find that a lot of them have very significant cancer that needs to be treated but wouldn't have been treated unless we had done this biopsy," Dr. Onik says. The new method can also detect how aggressive or not a cancer is -- possibly changing a patient's course of treatment.
 The 3-D mapping technique took more than 100 samples from Saliba's prostate and showed he had a small, early-stage cancer. "Which was reassuring because what it said to me, I had, I had a better idea what I had to deal with," he says. He chose hormone therapy, which has reduced his cancer, and says he's glad he was able to avoid surgery.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
If you would like more information, please contact:
Dr. Gary Onik
Florida Hospital at Celebration
400 Celebration Place
Suite A-280
Celebration, FL 34747
(407) 303-4228
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