Prostate Cancer
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Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among males in Europe and is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths in European males. The current practice for prostate cancer screening is based on the measurement of the serum concentration of prostate-specific antigen (PSA). In Spain, any man with a PSA serum concentration equal to or higher than 4 ng/ml and a positive direct rectal examination is subject to a prostate biopsy, an intervention in which 10-15 samples of prostate tissue are taken. Despite the high sensitivity (95%) of PSA in detecting cases of cancer, the low specificity of this marker means that as few as 25% of the biopsies carried out (due to high values of PSA detected in the screening test) actually detect prostate cancer. |
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Proteomika has identified a panel of protein biomarkers that increases the specificity (reduces the number of false positives) of prostate cancer screening for those patients with PSA levels higher than the threshold of 4 ng/ml. Proteomika’s test quantifies a panel of selected proteins in urine and applies a multivariate model to predict which of those patients with PSA levels above 4ng/ml are most likely to be suffering from prostate cancer.
Proteomika is developing an easy-to-use test for in vitro diagnosis of prostate cancer based on simultaneously measuring the panel of biomarker proteins in a urine sample. The accuracy of this test is currently under evaluation in a multi-center clinical study in order to provide clinical validation of the selected protein markers and the multivariate model used to predict risk.
This new method will help eliminate unnecessary biopsies in patients with PSA levels above 4 ng/ml, thus saving healthcare resources while simultaneously reducing unnecessary stress in patients and allowing improved monitoring of high-risk individuals.
