Trial Information

A Pilot Study Evaluating the Correlation Between Carbon 11 Acetate (C-11 Acetate) Uptake and Retention as Measured by Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Fatty Acid Synthase (FAS) Expression in Prostate Cancer

- Within 4 weeks of the patient's scheduled surgery they will undergo a C11 acetate PET
scan. This scan will be performed at the Massachusetts General Hospital's Nuclear
Medicine Department and involves an intravenous injection of acetate with a radioactive
tracer followed by a PET scan. The scan will determine how well the tumor is taking up
the acetate.

- Patients will also undergo a CT scan of the pelvis at the same time as the PET scan.

- After surgery, the removed tumor will have additional testing that will look at
different factors that may tell us how aggressive the tumor is and how much FAS is
within the tumor. FAS seems to be produced in higher amounts by prostate cancer cells
than normal cells. We will then try to determine if the results of the C11 acetate PET
scan can tell us how much FAS is produced by prostate cancer cells.