# Identification of prostate cancer aggressiveness using hyperpolarized polyamine metabolic rates

> **NIH NIH R21** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2020 · $184,099

## Abstract

Project Summary
Currently, serum prostate specific antigen screening has demonstrated its importance in detecting early-stage
prostate cancer (PCa). Unfortunately, at present, clinically known measures are often insufficient to
differentiate aggressive from indolent PCa, predict overall disease status and, more critically, predict outcomes
for patients of these early-stage diseases. Thus, the challenge seen in PCa clinic urges development of novel
methods to identify patients whose tumor aggressive potential warrants decisive action, while preventing
overtreatment of the majority indolent population. In this project, collectively considering PCa characteristics
reported in literature, the availability of new technologies, and our significant recent observations, we propose
to investigate the feasibility of developing a hyperpolarized (HP) carbon-13 (13C) magnetic resonance
spectroscopy imaging (MRSI) paradigm to measure the dynamics of polyamine ornithine initiated synthetic
pathways in prostate that have been reported to reflect PCa enzymatic bioactivities associated with disease
aggressiveness. The project will explore and test aspects included in the following two specific aims: 1)
Physiological and pathological feasibility studies of enzymatic polyamine synthetic rates and polyamine
biodistributions in the prostate and other critical organs for healthy and PCa rat models with ex vivo tissue
measurements, and comparing them with those of pyruvate that have been extensively reported, and 2)
Technical feasibility studies for developing in vivo HP sequential [1-13C]Ornithine and [1-13C]Pyruvate protocols
with healthy rat models and for testing in vitro mechanisms to increase [1,2-13C]Orn T1 lifetime in order to
prolong the measurable 13C polyamine transitions. The success of this exploratory project will lead us to the
design of polyamine and pyruvate co-agent HP 13C MRSI clinical trials to imaging benign and PCa tissues
simultaneously, and respectively, and test the efficacy of utilizing enzymatic activities of polyamine pathways in
characterization of human PCa status.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9955224
- **Project number:** 5R21CA243255-02
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Leo L Cheng
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $184,099
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-06-15 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9955224

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9955224, Identification of prostate cancer aggressiveness using hyperpolarized polyamine metabolic rates (5R21CA243255-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9955224. Licensed CC0.

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