- A new gold standard in testing is being developed by British scientists
- Researchers believe glass chip will be best way to detect prostate cancer
- Prostate cancer is most common form of the disease among British men
This post is on Healthwise
8 July 2015
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| Birmingham University scientists believe their gold-plated glass chip will be better at detecting prostate cancer than the existing test |
A new gold standard in testing for prostate cancer is being developed by British scientists.
Birmingham University scientists believe their gold-plated glass chip will be better at detecting the disease than the existing test.
Inexpensive and simple to use, it could lead to all older men being screened for the disease, as women are for breast cancer.
If the test, which requires just a few drops of a man’s blood, fulfils its early promise, it could be on sale in as little as two years.
Prostate cancer is the most common form of the disease among British men, with almost 42,000 cases diagnosed a year and 11,000 deaths.
But despite its toll, doctors do not have an accurate way of spotting it.
The blood test routinely used measures levels of a protein called prostate specific antigen, or PSA.
But illnesses other than cancer can raise levels of PSA and so the test is wrong more often than it is right.
As a result, many men are subjected to the pain, worry and embarrassment of unnecessary biopsies.
One reason for the lack of accuracy is that there is than one type of PSA and the existing test does not distinguish between them.
In contrast, the new test only picks out the type of PSA indicative of prostate cancer.
It does this by looking for a specific sugar molecule found in the PSA produced by men with prostate cancer.
A few drops of man’s blood applied are to a glass chip with a wafer-thin gold coating that only the ‘right’ PSA will attach to, much like a key fitting in a lock.
It is too early to say how effective it will be, but because it only detects one type of PSA, researcher John Fossey is confident it will be more accurate.
Dr Fossey said: ‘It’s estimated that one in eight men will suffer from prostate cancer at some point in their life, so there is a clear need for more accurate diagnosis.
‘By focusing on the sugar, we appear to have hit the “sweet spot” for doing just that.
‘Our focus now is to take this technology and develop it into something accessible to people across the world.’
Researcher Professor Paula Mendes said: ‘There are two key benefits.
‘Crucially for the patient, it gives a much more accurate reading.
‘Furthermore, our technology is simple to produce and store and so could feasibly be kept on the shelf of a doctor’s surgery anywhere in the world.
‘It can also be recycled for multiple uses without losing accuracy.’
Despite the use of gold, is hoped that the test, which is described in the journal Chemical Science, will cost under £100 per patient.
