In collaboration with Imperial College and the University of East Anglia (UEA), Oxford BioDynamics found that when the test is combined with a standard prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, more cases can be detected.
Publishing their findings in the journal Cancers, the research team said the PSA test currently used by the NHS is not accurate enough. As a result, there have been numerous cases of unnecessary prostate biopsies in men without cancer. These tests also provided “false reassurance in some men with cancer,” the study notes.
A pilot study of 147 patients evaluated the new test, concluding that it significantly improved the detection of the disease. All of the men studied had prostate cancer, leading the research team to conclude that its accuracy was 94%.
This new test is not only very precise, but also fast, minimally invasive and cheap. The next stage of the research will use the test on a group of men whose cancer status is unknown.
Prostate cancer develops when cells in the prostate begin to grow in an uncontrolled way. In some cases, it can grow rapidly and spread to other areas of the body, requiring treatment.
However, it doesn’t always cause symptoms, which is why it’s so important to understand your risk and get tested. Some may have problems urinating, along with back, hip or pelvic pain, trouble getting or maintaining an erection, blood in the urine or semen, or unexplained weight loss in more advanced cases.
Prostate cancer mainly affects men over 50, the risk increasing with age. This is even higher in the case of black men and those with a family history of the disease.
“Currently, there is no single test for prostate cancer, but PSA blood tests are among the most widely used, along with physical examinations, MRIs and biopsiessays Professor Dmitry Pshezhetskiy from UEA’s Norwich Medical School.
„However, PSA blood tests are not routinely used to screen for prostate cancer because the results can be unreliable. Only about a quarter of people who have a prostate biopsy because of a high PSA level are found to have prostate cancer. Therefore, there has been an effort to create a new blood test with greater accuracy.”
“When tested in the context of screening an at-risk population, the PSE test provides a rapid and minimally invasive diagnosis of prostate cancer with impressive performance. This suggests a real benefit for both diagnostic and screening purposes.”
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