ART ICR Saliva Test To Detect Genetic Variants Linked To High Risk, Aggressive PCa
• A spit test, where a sample can be collected at home, is more accurate at identifying future risk of prostate cancer for one group of men than the current standard blood test (PSA)
o For the men with the highest genetic risk, the PRS test falsely identified fewer people with prostate cancer than the PSA test,
o picked up people with cancer who would have been missed by the PSA test alone, and
o picked up a higher proportion of the aggressive cancers than the PSA test.
• The researchers are presenting findings from the study at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago.
o The study calculated the polygenic risk score (PRS) of 6,142 European men recruited from their GP surgeries
o The score is based on 130 genetic variations in the DNA code that are linked to prostate cancer
o an international team has identified more risk variants for men of Asian and African ancestry
• 558 men high risk men were invited to further screening, including MRI n Biopsy.
o 187 (34 per cent) with a high PRS were diagnosed with prostate cancer, vs
o 140 (25 per cent) of the 558 men who had prostate cancer found with a PSA test only.
o PRS was therefore 34% more likely to find PCa than PSA, and
> 147 (77.8 per cent) of the 187 men had a PSA below 3.0ug/L (ng/mL)
> this PSA is considered ‘normal’ and no further treatment would have followed
> 55.1% were aggressive cancers; only 35.5% of these were identified by PSA test
> PRS was 55% more effective in identifying aggressive PCa’s than PSA
• PRS test is more accurate than MRI in men with high genetic risk,
o 119 men (63.6 per cent) of the 187 had prostate cancer confirmed by a biopsy
o this PCa was not detected by the MRI.
• PRS saliva test could offer an additional screening tool to be offered to men at higher risk
• TRANSFORM trial will compare the PRS saliva test to the PSA blood test and MRI scan
• PRS is a simple, cheap, spit test used to identify men at higher risk with PCa due to their genetic makeup; an effective tool to catch the PCa early
