There may be a reliable prostate test

These days, new light is being shined on prostate cancer diagnosis, one that might make over 40 percent of prostate biopsies unnecessary.

The ISOPSA blood test, developed by the Cleveland Clinic, is designed to discriminate between highgrade prostate cancer (with a Gleason score of above 7) and low-grade/benign disease (6 or lower).

Why is this test more accurate than the PSA (prostate specific antigen) test? Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Eric Klein, who led the research team that presented a paper at the recent annual meeting of the American Urological Association, explains: “To be clinically useful, a biomarker must be both tissue-specific and cancer-specific. While PSA is prostate-specific, it is not specific for prostate cancer, leading to diagnostic inaccuracy and too many unneeded biopsies. ISOPSA fulfills both the tissue- and cancer-specificity needed for a useful biomarker.”

Clearly this could be a game changer. Stay tuned for more testing and Food and Drug Administration approvals.

Teach kids not to be afraid of the dark

Norway’s Svalbard archipelago is the northernmost inhabited region of Europe. There, the sun never sets during the summer, producing a midnight sun. Makes you wonder, “How do those folks sleep?”

But in lower latitudes there’s a midnight sun indoors. Just think about all the lights that are on from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. inside your home. Those lights are just as disruptive to your young children as the midnight sun is to, well, everyone.

For a new study, researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder created a dimly lit environment in 10 preschoolers’ homes. They then measured the children’s levels of melatonin, a hormone that signals the body it’s time to sleep, after the children spent the day in the darkened environment.

The next day the researchers exposed the kids to bright light for one hour before their bedtime and returned them to the low-light environment. That hour of light suppressed the kids’ melatonin levels by up to 88 percent.

That shines a light on just how damaging illumination at night can be to your preschoolers’ sleep cycle. Dim children’s bedroom lights an hour before they hit the hay; remove digital screens, and use dimmed booklights to illuminate pages as you read them to sleep. Then repeat for yourself! A 2000 study found the same is true for adults: More light, less melatonin.

Email questions for Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen to youdocsdaily@sharecare. com.