Prostate cancer test that’s 90% accurate

Technique inspired by dogs that sniff out tumours

A MACHINE that ‘sniffs’ out prostate cancer could spare men from painful and needless biopsies.

The urine test was devised to mimic the ability of dogs to diagnose prostate cancer with their noses.

Labradors and spaniels can be trained to sniff out 97 per cent of cases. They sit up straight if a patient has the deadly disease and walk away if they are clear.

A machine can now achieve the same results, by recording the molecules a dog’s delicate nose picks up in a urine sample. US academics at Indiana University detected these molecules in 90 per cent of men with prostate cancer.

In just a few years the breakthrough could spare many men a painful, intrusive biopsy, in which a needle is inserted into the prostate gland to remove tissue for assessment. Most of the time it is unnecessary because the patient has an infection or an illness other than cancer.

Amanda Siegel, who will present the research at the American Chemical Society’s annual conference today, said: ‘About 60 per cent of men who get a biopsy to test for prostate cancer don’t need one. We hope our research will help doctors and patients make better informed decisions about whether to have a biopsy, and to avoid unwarranted procedures.’

Dogs have astounded scientists with their ability to find prostate cancer through scent.

Dr Siegel said: ‘If dogs can smell prostate cancer, we should be able to, too.’ The team collected urine samples from 100 men undergoing prostate biopsies.

They used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry – a chemical-measuring technique – to identify the volatile organic compounds wafting from the urine samples.

Researchers from Liverpool University and the University of the West of Scotland made a similar breakthrough last year to sniff out prostate cancer with a machine called the Odoreader, which was also found to work for bladder cancer. But the US team say a test for patients in doctors’ surgeries could be only a few years away.

More than 46,000 men a year are diagnosed accurately with prostate cancer. And with the annual death toll at almost 11,000, early detection is vital.

Simon Grieveson of charity Prostate Cancer UK said: ‘Diagnosing prostate cancer accurately continues to be one of the biggest chal- lenges facing the disease and many men every year have to endure painful, yet unnecessary, biopsies.

‘A non-invasive test for prostate cancer would be game-changing and this is an area that Prostate Cancer UK continues to invest in.

‘Although this research is interesting, we are a long way from this type of test being used to benefit men. We look forward to further results from larger clinical trials.’