Even with prostate cancer being a well-known clinical challenge, we still don’t have robust biomarkers. As a consequence, early detection is particularly challenging. Recent discoveries point to a relatively easy, cost effective urine test as a game changer for diagnosing this common illness. Prostate cancer is highly treatable when diagnosed early, so improving detection methods is critical.
Martin Smelik explained some important outcomes of a study to Medical News Today. He focused on the emerging and essential need for better identification of prostate cancer. Using single cell RNA sequencing, the study profiled thousands of genes among thousands of individual tumor cells, classified by cancer grade and cancer location. Despite the overwhelming nature of this analysis, it resulted in the identification of novel biomarkers. In fact, these new markers are far more accurate than the long-established prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test at identifying the severity of prostate cancer.
For almost half a century, PSA has been not just a biomarker but the only consistent validator of prostate cancer. We talked to Ramkishen Narayanan, board-certified urologist and Director of the Center for Urologic Health. Dr. D’Agostino added his excitement over the study’s influence on future screening programs. He stated, “This publication brings hope for more efficient screening programs within next few years, which might ultimately help to prevent and treat prostate cancer.”
The research included close to 2,000 patients who had their blood, prostate tissue, and urine samples screened for these new biomarkers. SPOT-ON validated the previously published research demonstrating that these biomarkers significantly improve the specificity of prostate cancer detection. They are capable of sparing men who do not have cancer from needless biopsies.
Milan Sheth highlighted the significance of these findings, noting that “the study authors make note that urine may be an excellent modality for finding a reliable biomarker due to the ‘local fluids’ near cancer concept.” He further explained that “the findings from the current paper showed that specific biomarkers which are dynamic and more sensitive than PSA can actually be found in the urine.”
The application of artificial intelligence to this study enabled researchers to find new ways to diagnose prostate cancer. Sheth remarked, “This discovery could potentially change the ways in which prostate cancer is not only diagnosed but can also be used as a more accurate screening mechanism, which we desperately need.”
Martin Smelik further emphasized that the urine-based approach is beneficial because of the non-invasive sample collection. He stated, “This approach [via a urine sample] outperforms the current blood tests based on PSA but at the same time keeps the advantages of being non-invasive, painless, and relatively cheap.”
As talks continue as to how best to incorporate these new biomarkers into a UK-wide prostate cancer trial, those in the field are cautiously optimistic. They hope that the cutting-edge work in biomarker science will extend past prostate cancer. This advance stands to benefit non-PDAC cancers in subsequent research.
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