What if you could avoid a prostate biopsy and significantly improve the accuracy of a cancer diagnosis with a simple blood test?
That idea may be closer than you think!
Diagnosing prostate cancer
A new study published in the Journal of Urology has found that combining prostate specific antigen (PSA) results with this new blood test that looks for circulating tumor cells may be more than 90% accurate in diagnosing aggressive prostate cancer.
This combination approach is more accurate than any existing biomarkers for prostate cancer and, once approved, may be available to doctors in 3 to 5 years.
“Testing for circulating tumor cells is efficient, noninvasive, and potentially accurate,” says Yong-Jie Lu, a professor of molecular oncology at the Barts Cancer Institute of Queen Mary University of London, “and we’ve now demonstrated its potential to improve the current standard of care.”
The problem with current tests
Although raised PSA levels can be a sign that prostate cancer is present, there are other conditions that can also raise PSA levels, including inflammation or noncancerous enlargement of the prostate. That’s why a biopsy is performed; to confirm the presence of cancer via a tissue analysis. But there are some concerns:
- Biopsies are uncomfortable.
- Biopsies run the risk of infection and bleeding.
- Most men with raised PSA levels who get a biopsy don’t actually have cancer.
- Even if the biopsy DOES reveal cancer, most of the time the tumor isn’t aggressive and won’t be fatal if left untreated anyway.
Prostate cancer in the United States
According to the American Cancer Society, roughly 1 in 9 men will develop prostate cancer. But while over 174,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2019, only an estimated 31,620 will die from it. That may sound like a lot, but consider that more than 3.2 million men in the United States are currently living with a prostate cancer diagnosis.
