New Blood Test Can Detect Prostate Cancer More Accurately And Earlier

New Blood Test Can Detect Prostate Cancer More Accurately And Earlier.
A untrodden blood check-up to spot a cluster of specific proteins may point out the presence of prostate cancer more accurately and earlier than is now possible, new research suggests. The test, which has thus far only been assessed in a captain study, is 90 percent accurate and returned fewer false-positive results than the prostate definitive antigen (PSA) test, which is the current clinical standard, the researchers added. Representatives of the British companionship that developed the test, Oxford Gene Technology in Oxford, presented the findings Tuesday at the International Conference on Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development in Denver, hosted by the American Association for Cancer Research.

The analysis looks for auto-antibodies for cancer, like to the auto-antibodies associated with autoimmune diseases such as font 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. "These are antibodies against our own proteins," explained John Anson, Oxford's defect president of biomarker discovery. "We're demanding to look for antibodies generated in the original stages of cancer. This is an exquisitely sensitive mechanism that we're exploring with this technology".

Such a investigation generates some excitement not only because it could theoretically detect tumors earlier, when they are more treatable, but auto-antibodies can be "easily detected in blood serum. It's not an invasive technique. It's a open blood test". The researchers came up with groups of up to 15 biomarkers that were backsheesh in prostate cancer samples and not present in men without prostate cancer. The assay also was able to differentiate actual prostate cancer from a more benign condition.

Because a unequivocal is currently pending, Anson would not list the proteins included in the test. "We are accepted on to a much more exhaustive follow-on study. At the moment, we are taking over 1,800 samples, which includes 1,200 controls with a full range of 'interfering diseases' that men of 50-plus are prone to and are running a very large analytical validation study".

That dissection is due to be completed early next year, at which point Oxford is "going to be seeking partnership to emerge the test further". He also expressed hope that the technology could one day be applied to other diseases, including lupus, on which there is some advance data. Anson predicted that, if further trials go well, the evaluate could be available commercially in 10 to 15 years.

Researchers have been on the hunt for a better screening test for prostate cancer, given the unreliability of the aware standard. Because the PSA test generates so many false-positives, many men end up getting surgery or emanation that they simply don't need. "The current PSA test has a great sensitivity, of over 90 percent, but exhausted specificity, so there are a lot of false-positives. A lot of men are going on for unnecessary diagnostic procedures such as needle biopsies and it may be radical prostatectomies that aren't required".

The field of biomarkers is intended to further the growing square footage of personalized medicine, where drugs and treatments are tailored to the specific characteristics of a person's cancer. However, Dr Gordon B Mills, program chairman of the cancer joining and chair of the department of systems biology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said "those drugs are not thriving to be very useful unless at the same time we are able to specify patients likely to benefit from them". According to American Cancer Society estimates, about 218000 cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in the state in 2010, and there will be approximately 32050 deaths.

Prostate cancer is the most garden type of cancer found in American men, other than skin cancer. One man in six will get prostate cancer during his lifetime, and one in 36 will be no more of the disease. More than 2 million men in the United States who have had prostate cancer are still teeming today energy. The death rate for the disease is effective down, and it's being found earlier, the cancer society says.