Home kits could give men an early warning on risk of prostate cancer

A home test kit for prostate cancer that could help with early diagnosis of aggressive forms of the disease while reducing the need for trips to hospital is being trialled.

Researchers will post kits to 2,000 men in the UK, Europe and Canada, with participants asked to give two urine samples for lab analysis.

Teams from East University of East Anglia and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital trialled the kit with a small group of participants before the latest phase of the study.

The Prostate Screening Box aims to diagnose aggressive prostate cancer, which will require treatment, by looking at gene expressions in urine.

In the pilot study it did so up to five years earlier than standard clinical methods, according to the researchers.

Lead researcher Dr Jeremy Clark, from UEA’S

Norwich Medical School, said: “Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK.

“However, it usually develops slowly and the majority of cancers will not require treatment in a man’s lifetime.

“It is not a simple matter to predict which tumours will become aggressive.”

He said the most commonly used tests for prostate cancer include blood tests, a physical examination known as a digital rectal examination, an MRI scan or a biopsy.

The urine tests could make monitoring of cancer in men “so much less stressful for them and reduce the number of expensive trips to the hospital”, said Dr Clark.

Dr Clark said: “Feedback from early participants showed that the at-home collection was much preferred over sample collection in a hospital.”

Participants in the study are in three categories: men who have had a prostate-specific antigen test, usually at their GP surgery, and the result suggests they possibly have prostate cancer; men with low-risk prostate cancer that may progress to a more aggressive form; and men with a genetic predisposition to having prostate cancer but who do not have cancer at present.

The men are usually between 55 and 80.

“It is the most common cancer in men in the UK