The first of its kind in Australasia, a machine that checks for circulating tumor cells, called the CellSearch has been announced as a significant breakthrough in the treatment for advanced prostate cancer in Australian men.

At an international conference held in the Gold Cost, the machine coupled with the latest multi

disciplinary team clinic at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) were said to signify an important move forward in the battle against prostate cancer.

The equipment is expected to be a national resource for checking treatment response and estimating survival in patients suffering from metastatic breast, prostate and colorectal cancer, according to Professor Coleen Nelson, Chair of Prostate Cancer of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

Prof Nelson said, the CellSearch machine will scientifically allow them to capture prostate cancer cells and study them at a molecular level.

The facility will be used in clinical trials of prostate cancer treatments and to assess the treatment of cancer for individual patients from across the country, he said.

The latest multidisciplinary team of clinic that has a group of specialists from various disciplines who work together is a first of its kind in Australia, said Paul Lucas, Health Minister of Queensland in the conference organized by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

Mr Lucas told reporters, In many ways we're the victims of our own success.

As men age, the rate of prostate cancer increases and he said, in the future more men will require more support for the condition.

The latest technology of CellSearch would be a trigger to other research now that circulating tumor cells can be calculated, said Dr Simon Wood, Director of Urology at PAH.

Men with higher predisposition to getting prostate cancer will also be getting the focus of the new advancement in the technology.

In Australia, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men -one in nine men affected- and the second most common cause of cancer deaths in men, with fatalities reach over 3,000 men per year.

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