Hypersensitive PSA Provides Better Screening for Prostate Cancer

It is the most common type of cancer among men, with over 175,000 cases diagnosed in any given year. Ironically it will claim the lives of almost 40,000 men this year alone. Ironic because prostate cancer is one of the most detectable, and successfully treatable, forms of the disease, thanks to something known as PSA. Doctor Stephen B. Strum Director of the Prostate Cancer Research Institute explains. “PSA stands for Prostate Specific Antigen, it’s a protein, and we have technology called assays that detect these proteins we call biomarkers the levels or which are indicative conditions within the body such as tumors. PSA is the most valuable biomarker in the history of medicine for a common malignancy such as prostate cancer. By establishing a baseline PSA at the age of 40 and following it and seeing if there is a rate of change or an absolute increase in PSA that can give you a clue to the presence of a malignant process.”

As the “Baby Boom” generation ages, more and more men are entering the age group that should be concerned and tested for prostate cancer. In an effort to stem the tide of what could be an increase in prostate cancer cases, researchers with companies like DPC Diagnostics, are turning their efforts to improving the precision of the devices that are used to perform the PSA test. At facilities like New York’s Montifiore Medical Center a new assay has recently been introduced that has been shown to be as much as 10 times more sensitive to the presence of PSA in a patient’s blood. According to experts “The information that these assays provide allows for detection of disease states much earlier then previously available, in relative terms eight to twelve months earlier.” Any one who has suffered with or has had a relative suffer with the devastating blow of a diagnosis of cancer, knows what a difference a diagnosis of almost a year earlier could make.