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Experimental Spit Test Could Identify Men Most At Risk of Prostate Cancer (gizmodo.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: A test developed by scientists in the U.K. and U.S. might someday be able to pinpoint the men most likely to get prostate cancer. A new study published Monday in Nature Genetics suggests the test can detect the one percent of men who are genetically most vulnerable to developing prostate cancer, a leading cause of cancer deaths among American men. The international research team used a new DNA analysis technique to peer into the genes of more than 70,000 people enrolled in previous studies. Some 45,000 of the subjects had already developed prostate cancer, while 25,000 hadn't. So the researchers compared the two groups, singling out any inherited genetic variations that might have contributed to their cancer risk. According to the authors, they managed to find 63 new variants never before associated with prostate cancer.
These results were then integrated with nearly a hundred genetic variants linked to prostate cancer previously found among 60,000 people to create a total genetic risk score. And finally, the researchers devised a test that uses a person's saliva to detect these more than 150 variants. In the U.S., people over the age of 50 are generally screened for prostate cancer via the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test. Those with a certain high level of PSA should be screened annually, while everyone else is advised to be screened every two years. But the saliva test could reveal especially high-risk people who need annual screening regardless of their PSA level, while ruling out low-risk people who don't need annual screening based on their genetic risk and PSA scores. Those people would only need screenings every two, five, and maybe even 10 years.
These results were then integrated with nearly a hundred genetic variants linked to prostate cancer previously found among 60,000 people to create a total genetic risk score. And finally, the researchers devised a test that uses a person's saliva to detect these more than 150 variants. In the U.S., people over the age of 50 are generally screened for prostate cancer via the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test. Those with a certain high level of PSA should be screened annually, while everyone else is advised to be screened every two years. But the saliva test could reveal especially high-risk people who need annual screening regardless of their PSA level, while ruling out low-risk people who don't need annual screening based on their genetic risk and PSA scores. Those people would only need screenings every two, five, and maybe even 10 years.
I know you're being facetious but the attitude you're posting about, is becoming sadly common, including on this website.
The problem often is not the PSA screening per se, it's the prostate snatcher urologist eager to sell his "services" - old fashioned biopsies and surgery. There are many flavors of PSA related tests that can less invasively help enumerate your prostate cancer odds.
We are at the threshold of diagnostic technologies that are less invasive, and early treatments that are not well recieved by all urologists.
I'm not going to read TFA, but I'm pretty sure that's what this new test is, except they spit on their finger first.
You are welcome on my lawn.
'people over the age of 50 are generally screened for prostate cancer'
Are we so PC that we can't specify the gender that actually has prostate glands, but have to be inclusive and all, and avoid excluding those genders that do not?
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.