New prostate cancer tests indicate the disease better than the PSA option, according to the study

A new prostate cancer screening medium could arise as an alternative to the PSA test, which has long been the first line option.

Using automatic learning, a form of artificial intelligence, Swedish researchers analyzed urine samples of more than 2,000 men with prostate cancer, along with a control group.

They determined that the simple and non -invasive urine test was able to detect prostate cancer biomarkers with a high degree of precision and could also determine the degree (stage) of the disease.

The results were published in Cancer Research.

Prostate cancer drug is now available for more aggressive patients

“Prostate cancer can be effectively identified by analyzing the expression of urine candidate biomarkers,” said Karolinska Institutet’s main Martin Smelik in Stockholm, Sweden, who spoke with Fox News Digital News about findings.

“This approach exceeds current PSA -based blood tests, but at the same time maintains the benefits of being non -invasive, painless and relatively cheap.”

The researchers were surprised by the “heterogeneity of the tumors”, which refers to “the differences between tumors of the same type in different patients, the differences between cancer cells within a unique tumor or the differences between a primary (original) tumor and a secondary tumor”, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The risk of prostate cancer increases by 45% among men who share worrying behavior

“One of the main challenges of the study was to overcome it and identify specific biomarkers for prostate cancer, but also expressed in all types of patients,” Smelik said.

Dr. Timothy Showalter, a UVA Health radiation oncologist in Virginia and a medical officer in Artera, was not involved in the study, but instead commented on the findings.

“This study highlights the power of automatic learning applied to patient data to identify advances that can help us diagnose cancer before, when our treatments are more effective,” he told Fox News Digital.

“Prostate cancer screening has not seen a transformative breakthrough in decades, and current approaches are still based on PSA blood test, which is known to have a low specificity for clinically significant cancers.”

What do you know about the PSA

The existing PSA test works by supervising specific antigen levels for blood prostate.

It can be used to analyze prostate cancer or supervise the progression of the disease, but some risks and limitations have been noticed.

“Prostate cancer screening has not seen a transformative advance in decades.”

Matthew C. Abramowitz, MD, co -chair and clinical leader of the Diseases Group of Genitourinary Malignant Site at the Miami Sylvester Cancer Center, Florida, echoed the need for alternatives to the PSA test.

“Although PSA is an incredibly sensitive tool for prostate problems, it is not specific to prostate cancer,” said Abramowitz, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.

Click here to get the Fox News app

“The techniques proposed in the current study suggest the promise of identifying specific cancer markers in the urine, minimizing some of the specificity concerns associated with PSA.”

Although PSA has the advantage of simplicity, speed and reasonable cost, determining the meaning behind any abnormal finding often requires subsequent evidence, such as magnetic resonance and biopsies, the doctor said.

False positives are also common with PSA test, which occur between 6% and 7% of cases.

“Only about 25% of men who have a biopsy due to a high level of PSA have prostate cancer,” says NIH.

Limitations and future research

The study had some limitations, mainly the low number of samples.

“The urine prostate cancer prediction model was performed in a small data set, and it seems to a large extent an analysis of European men, both may limit their applicability to other high -risk prostate cancer populations,” said Abramowitz.

Click here to register -you are in our health newsletter

The test could also be a significant increase due to the specialized equipment needed to perform the analyzes, he added.

Researchers recognized the need for larger studies to validate findings and include other cancers.

“Although this study focused specifically on prostate cancer, we believe that some of the methods could also be generalized to other cancers, which we would like to try in our future studies,” said Smeelik.

The ultimate goal, according to researchers, is to achieve more efficient screening programs in the coming years, potentially helping to prevent and treat prostate cancer.

For more health items, visit www.foxnews.com/health

Showalter agreed, adding: “This work can open the way for more specific screening methods that improve our ability to detect high -degree cancers before progressing or metastasis, improving care rates and reducing treatment related to treatment.”