Scientists reveal prostate test advance

IRISH scientists have developed a better test than the one currently available to diagnose prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men here, with about 500 dying from the disease every year.

The Prostate Cancer Research Consortium (PCRC) has identified a blood test that will allow the disease to be detected earlier and with more certainty.

The PCRC has drawn up a panel of five bio-markers, (or blood tests), that someone has prostate cancer without the need of a biopsy.

The Prostate Specific Antibodies (PSA) test is currently used to detect prostate cancer and to monitor the effectiveness of existing treatments.

While an increase in PSA level does not necessarily mean that a patient has prostate cancer, it does suggest the possibility the patient has the disease.

Since early 2004, scientists from UCD, TCD, RCSI and DCU, and doctors and research nurses from the Mater, St James, Tallaght and Beaumont Hospitals, as part of the PCRC, have been collecting hundreds of samples of tumours, together with blood and urine from men with early and advanced stage prostate cancer and depositing them in a tissue bank.

Leading cancer scientist and one of the three senior PCRC investigators, Professor William Watson, said the next step was to bring the new blood test into the clinical setting.

The PCRC, which is funded by the Irish Cancer Society, has linked up with scientists in Australia, Austria and the United States wanting to become involved in validating the test.

Prof Watson said it would take a minimum of three years before the new test could be introduced.

“We are trying to come up with more specific markers of prostate cancer that will not just detect the disease, but will identify the stage it has reached so it can be appropriately treated,” he said.

Prof Watson said scientists were also close to perfecting urine tests to detect prostate cancer.

“We are now moving away from having only one test to diagnose prostate cancer and determine appropriate treatment,” he said.

He believed that, eventually, a battery of tests would pooled together in order to better identify and treat patients.

lFor more information call the Irish Cancer Society’s prostate cancer information service at 1800 380380 or visit www.cancer.ie