Cancer Treatment Today

Risk assessment can be useful to clinicians because it allows assessment of risk versus benefit of partcular treatments. Risk assessment methods currently used for newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients have disadvantages. THey include: D’Amico risk categories, Partin probability tables, University of California, San Francisco-Cancer of the Prostate Risk Assessment risk score, and Kattan nomograms; all rely heavily on traditional clinical variables

In April 2002, the FDA approved the Cylex Immune Cell Function Assay (Cylex Inc., Columbia, MD) for the detection of cell mediated immune response in populations undergoing immunosuppressive therapy for organ transplant.  FDA clearance of tests does not include specific indications. The test calculates the concentration of ATP (ng/ml) from a calibration curve and compared to ATP level ranges to characterize the cellular immune function of the sample.