A study undertaken in Sweden has shown that a new test for prostate cancer is better at detecting aggressive cancer than prostate-specific antigen (PSA). The new test, which has undergone trial in 58,818 men, discovered aggressive cancer earlier and reduced the number of false-positive tests and unnecessary biopsies. The results were published recently in the The Lancet Oncology.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men worldwide, with over 1.2 million diagnosed in 2012. If the number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer increases, within 20 years over two million men are estimated to be diagnosed yearly. Currently, PSA is used to diagnose prostate cancer, but the procedure has long been controversial.
The new, so-called STHLM3 test is a blood test that analyses a combination of six protein markers, over 200 genetic markers and clinical data (ie age, family history and previous prostate biopsies). The test has been developed by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientific, which provided the protein and genetic marker assays used in the clinical study.