These non invasive tests make sense when in a socialized medicine setting (cost savings to the state for less expensive diagnosis and less treatment), compared the broken USA system where biopsies and pumping drugs and chemicals are money making ventures and procedures- imo. Correct me if I am wrong, I am not a Dr. of course.
FWIW- it's news. not sure if accurate or posted before, but 2 articles I saw. The BARCODE 2nd article part about "No reliable test for aggressive prostate cancer"- I guess the journalist omitted non-invasive... since biopsy cell cultures studied and Gleason score assigned the aggressiveness by the pathologist doing the interpretation.
NMP48 Protein Test:
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New test can detect nearly all prostate cancers:
...."The major problem has been that the existing test not only misses up to a third of all cancers, but also produces a large number of false positives, with up to three out of four positive results turning out to be negative...
Many men who have tested positive to prostate cancer have had to go through distressing and costly biopsies unnecessarily, while the test has failed to pick up the illness in those who are actually suffering from it....
...The original test measured the amount of prostate specific antigen (PSA), a chemical made by the gland, in the blood. Higher than normal levels can be one clue that cancer has developed...
....'Our objective has been to design a better test that is more specific for cancer, and doesn't create false positives,' says David Corber, chief executive of Matritech, which developed the new test.
"Known as NMP48, it works by detecting a protein in the blood which is found only in cancerous cells of the prostate. The test detects 96 per cent of cancers.
...'The discovery of the NMP48 protein and the resulting test will significantly improve testing for prostate cancer...
Not only is it highly accurate, but it also does not create a positive result in a benign condition,' says Mr Corber." The new test could be on the market shortly. ...
...The test is already working on the idea of a DIY kit version that could be carried out quickly and simply at home.
dailymail.co.uk/health/arti...
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Saliva Test- BARCODE Study
..." PSA testing picks up many people who have cancers that grow too slowly to cause any significant health impacts, meaning that men may undergo unnecessary MRI scans, invasive biopsies, and treatments. Importantly, then, the new spit test identified a higher proportion of aggressive cancers – which are fast growing and likely to spread – than the PSA test. Of the 187 cancers detected in BARCODE 1, 55% were aggressive cancers, compared with 36% of those identified by a PSA test in a recent study..."
Naser Turabi, our director of evidence and implementation, put the findings into context.
“Right now, there’s no reliable method to detect aggressive prostate cancer, but this study brings us a step closer to finding the disease sooner in those people who need treatment,” he said. “It’s encouraging to see that genetic testing might help to guide a more targeted approach to screening based on someone’s risk of developing prostate cancer. More research is now needed to confirm if this tool can save lives from the disease so that it can be rolled out to improve diagnosis.”