A blood test for early, high-risk prostate cancer detection

由吴安琪博士和格特·阿塔德教授领导的伦敦大学学院的科学家们发明了一种新的测试方法，可以识别血液中前列腺癌的早期基因变化：这一过程可以让医生发现高风险的前列腺癌。这一在血液中的成功发现代表了前列腺组织的“指纹”，或早期循环的生物标志物，当被检测到时，表明癌症是活跃的，并且有更高的扩散机会。首席临床科学家吴安琪博士说：“前列腺癌是一种异质性很强的疾病，治疗效果不一；然而，长期存在过度诊断和过度治疗的问题。”“我们迫切需要一种更好的生物标志物来识别高危前列腺癌，并促进临床决策。”下一步，研究人员将研究这种测试是否可以补充或取代现有的前列腺特异性抗原测试，这种测试用于前列腺癌的诊断和治疗监测。如果成功，这种血液测试可以在全球范围内实施，并预测男性患高风险或侵袭性前列腺癌的可能性。

Scientists at UCL led by Dr Anjui Wu and Prof Gert Attard have invented a new test to identify the earliest genetic changes of prostate cancer in blood: a process which could allow doctors to detect high-risk prostate cancer. This successful discovery in blood represents a prostate tissue 'fingerprint', or early circulating biomarker, and when detected identifies that cancer is active and has higher chance of spreading.Lead clinical scientist Dr Anjui Wu said: "Prostate cancer is a very heterogeneous disease with variable treatment response; however, there is a longstanding problem of overdiagnosis and overtreatment." "We urgently need a superior biomarker to pick up specifically high-risk prostate cancer and facilitate clinical decision making."Moving forward researchers will see if this test could complement or replace the existing prostate specific antigen test, which is used for prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment monitoring. If successful, this blood test can be implemented globally and predict the likelihood of a man having high-risk or aggressive prostate cancer.