Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer and is one of the most common cause of death due to cancer.

Yet, paradoxically most men with prostate cancer die “with it” rather than “of it”.

It does take a bit of thinking to get the head around the above two facts.

At present, we use a blood test called PSA ( prostate specific antigen) to detect prostate cancer. It is the most widely used and best available blood test. But it is not perfect.

PSA detects too many “mild cancers” which do not need to be detected because those “mild prostate cancers” do not affect the life expectancy in most men.

PSA can also sometimes miss “severe cancers”.

Hence the search is on to find better tests.

A U.K. led team has now developed a “saliva” (spit) test to improve the detection of prostate cancer.

The promising results presented at ASCO 2024 meeting in Chicago hopefully will be followed by more confirmatory trials before it becomes standard practice.

References

1. BBC News. At-home saliva test may catch deadly prostate cancers.

2. “More men die with prostate cancer than because of it” – an old adage that still holds true in the 21st century. Cancer Treatment and Research Communications, Volume 26,2021, 100225, ISSN 2468-2942,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctarc.2020.100225.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468294220300605)

3. Effect of polygenic risk score for clinically significant prostate cancer in a screening program: The BARCODE 1 study results. Journal of Clinical Oncology. Volume 42, Number 16_suppl

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