New blood test for prostate cancer may reduce the need for biopsies

Researchers at Queen Mary University in London said a new blood test designed to screen for aggressive prostate cancer may be available in three to five years and prevent men from enduring many invasive biopsies.

As L & # 39; Independent note that the current test, which looks for high levels of a protein called PSA (prostate specific antigen), is "not very accurate" and requires a tissue biopsy of the prostate as a follow-up to determine whether a patient is actually prostate cancer. The procedure is invasive, but three-quarters of the biopsied patients end up not having the disease.

The new blood test, called Parsortix, whose accuracy is estimated at 90%, detects circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that have entered the bloodstream. Researchers think it will be more accurate than looking for PSA, which may be present in the blood for other reasons than cancer.

"The current prostate cancer test often leads to unnecessary invasive biopsies and overdiagnosis and overtreatment of many men, causing considerable harm to patients and wasting precious resources in health care," he said. said senior professor Yong-Jie Lu. "It is clearly necessary to improve the selection of patients for them to undergo the biopsy procedure. The circulating tumor cell test is effective, non-invasive and potentially accurate. We have now demonstrated its potential to improve the current standard treatment. "

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Read the full story at The Independent