Research into unnecessary biopsies

A high proportion of men with abnormal PSA blood test readings do not have cancer but a benign condition.  This results in many men with mid range (4 to 10) PSA values having biopsies which turn out to indicate a benign condition.  If a test existed to determine with high accuracy that cancer was not present, even if it failed to identify all such situations, a great deal of unnecessary distress and cost could be eliminated.  Two US scientists, Dr David Ornstein and Emanuel Petracoin have announced results leading to such a test in the Journal of the US National Cancer Institute.  Researchers analyzed blood from men with prostate cancer and from men without the disease so that their computer software could learn how to identify patterns of proteins which were characteristic of benign and malignant conditions.  In a blinded trial the computer diagnostic got 100% with a benign condition correct.  Dr. David Ornstein said, 'This could help significantly reduce unnecessary biopsies.'

While the new findings provide further validation that the protein pattern approach can be effective in cancer detection.  Ornstein and his co-authors note that it cannot replace a biopsy as a definitive cancer detection tool.  However, they suggest that protein pattern analysis may be used in the future to aid clinicians so that fewer men are subjected to unnecessary biopsies.  The diagnostic test must undergo more extensive experiments before it is ready for general use, but a test for ovarian cancer, also using protein patterns in the blood, is being readied for clinical trials.