A Better Way to Screen Prostate Cancer?

More than 1.6 million men undergo prostate biopsies each year. The biopsies are painful and most are unnecessary. Now researchers at Johns Hopkins say they have developed a more accurate test - it's very preliminary - but it might spare most men this unnecessary ordeal. In a biopsy, doctors put a needle into the prostate through the colon and take a small tissue sample. That tissue can show the details of cancer growth. But there's a downside. "Right now we're biopsying about six men to find one that has prostate cancer. So what we want to do is limit our focus on those that really do have the disease," explained Prof. Robert Getzenberg of John Hopkins University Hospital and the Brady Urological Institute. Now a new blood test being looked at could solve the problem. The current blood test - called a PSA - tries to diagnose prostate cancer by comparing specific chemical levels in the blood. But the new test focuses on finding a chemical only produced by cancer cells- a better indication of whether or not prostate cancer is actually there. "I think it's an important new test. Where the PSA is giving us results in the gray zone - 'Is it good or is it bad?' - this, as a secondary test, might prove helpful," said Dr. Peter Scardino of the Memorial Cancer Center and Sloan-Kettering Institute. A study of the new test found that it only gave false alarms 3 percent of the time. Compare that with the PSA - which is wrong 80 percent of the time. PSA levels for Jay Weiss were rising, and that led him into getting biopsies. "I certainly did not look forward to the second biopsy, much less the third," said Weiss. But the PSA was wrong, all three biopsies were negative. When the new, more accurate test is approved, men will undergo fewer painful biopsies, and doctors will have better chances of finding prostate cancer.