Test hope in prostate cancer battle

A single blood test for men aged 60 could identify those most likely to develop and die from prostate cancer, new research has suggested.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, with 35,000 in the UK diagnosed every year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Screening is used in certain countries, but remains open to debate with medical experts weighing up the benefits of screening against the potential harms and costs of over-diagnosis and over-treatment of healthy men.

Prostate cancer can develop when cells in the prostate gland start to grow in an uncontrolled way.

The findings in the British Medical Journal suggested the single test could pinpoint which men needed to be monitored closely and others who needed no further checks.

Professor Philipp Dahm and colleagues at the University of Florida reviewed six previous screening trials involving 387,286 participants. They found routine screening aided the diagnosis of prostate cancer at an earlier stage, but did not have a significant impact on death rates and raised the risk of over-treatment.

A second study by headed by Professor Hans Lilja, showed a single "prostate-specific antigen" (PSA) level test at age 60 strongly predicted a man's risk of diagnosis and death from prostate cancer.

The team found 90% of prostate cancer deaths occurred in men with the highest PSA levels at age 60, while men with average or low PSA levels had negligible rates of prostate cancer or death by age 85.

The findings suggested at least half of men aged 60 and above might be exempted from further prostate cancer screening.

Gerald Andriole, chief of urologic surgery at Washington University School of Medicine, suggested PSA testing should be geared to individual risk. He recommended young men at high risk of prostate cancer, for example those with a strong family history, should be monitored closely, while elderly men and those with a low risk of disease could be tested less often.