Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men. A team from Queen Mary University of London (UK) is developing a new blood test, which instead detects the circulating tumor cells (CTCs), which left the tumor and entered the bloodstream, this test, in combination with the PSA test can provide an accuracy level of 90% (according to the Journal of Urology), which would avoid prostate biopsies. The research, led by Dr. Yong -Je Lu (professor of molecular oncology at the Barts Cancer Institute of Queen Mary University of London) was conducted on 98 male patients, who have not yet had the biopsy and another 155 people who had recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer. All patients were from St. Bartholomew Hospital in London. The results found that the rate of CTCs in prebiopsy blood samples indicated an aggressive presence of prostate cancer. Detecting CTCs is certainly a less invasive way than a biopsy and more accurate for detecting this type of cancer, this kind of test would avoid unnecessary and risky biopsies for the patient’s health.
You can find more information about this test in this article from Medical News Today.
Recent Comments