Golden chance to save prostate cancer victims

A NEW gold standard in testing for prostate cancer is being developed by British scientists.

Birmingham University researchers believe their gold-plated glass chip will be better at detecting the disease than the existing test.

Inexpensive and simple to use, it could lead to all older men being screened for the disease, as women are for breast cancer. If the test, which requires just a few drops of blood, fulfils its early promise, it could be on sale in as little as two years. Prostate cancer is the most common form of the disease among British men, with almost 42,000 cases diagnosed a year and 11,000 deaths. But despite its toll, doctors have no accurate way of spotting it.

The blood test routinely used measures levels of a protein called prostate specific antigen, or PSA. But illnesses other than cancer can raise levels of PSA and so the test is often wrong.

It means many men are subjected to the pain, worry and embarrassment of unnecessary biopsies. One reason for the lack of accuracy is there is more than one type of PSA and the existing test cannot distinguish between them.

In contrast, the new test picks out only the type of PSA indicative of prostate cancer. It does this by looking for a specific sugar molecule found in the PSA produced by men with the disease. A few drops of blood are applied to a glass chip with a wafer-thin gold coating that only the ‘right’ PSA will attach to, much like a key fitting in a lock.

It is too early to say how effective it will be, but because it detects only one type of PSA, researchers are confident it will be more accurate. Professor Paula Mendes said: ‘Furthermore, our technology is simple to produce and store and so could feasibly be kept on the shelf of a doctor’s surgery anywhere in the world. It can also be recycled for multiple uses without losing accuracy.’

Despite the use of gold, is hoped that the test, which is described in the journal Chemical Science, will cost under £100 per patient.

Dr Matthew Hobbs, of charity Prostate Cancer UK, said: ‘There is no doubt that our ability to diagnose prostate cancer early needs to improve. Any man with symptoms they are worried about should speak to their GP urgently.’

‘More accurate than current test’