Scientists in America have developed a simple and potentially more accurate test for detecting prostate cancer. In a new study led by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, researchers have made significant progress in developing a noninvasive test that picks up prostate cancer from chemicals in urine.
In America prostate cancer is currently the second most common life-ending cancer, according to the American Cancer Society but the organisation says ‘most men diagnosed with prostate cancer do not die from it’. Making the new test a major breakthrough.
“A simple and noninvasive urine test for prostate cancer would be a significant step forward in diagnosis. Tissue biopsies are invasive and notoriously difficult because they often miss cancer cells, and existing tests. said Ranjan Perera, Ph.D., the study’s senior author.
The team now plans to scale up its initial proof-of-principle study to test a larger group.
“We discovered cancer-specific changes in urinary RNAs and metabolites that — if confirmed in a larger, separate group of patients — will allow us to develop a urinary test for prostate cancer in the future,” added Bongyong Lee, Ph.D., the study’s first author and a senior scientist at the Cancer & Blood Disorders Institute.
There was more positive news in the fight against cancer this month from London’s LIfT BioSciences, a company which is attracting investment in its pioneering cancer killing treatment. Biotech ‘super-angel’ Johnston Milner said ‘LIfT has developed and patented the most promising cancer therapy I have come across to date’. While Alex Blyth, CEO of LIfT BioSciences said N-LIft, which would be the world’s first curative and affordable cell therapy for all solid tumours, can create a ‘paradigm-shifting change in how we treat cancer’.
“N-LIfT is a smart living therapy that selectively destroys any cancer cell we throw at it, regardless of type, mutational status or whether they are hot or cold tumours. N-LIfT also has the potential to improve the performance of other therapies that struggle with solid tumours and cold (non-inflamed) tumour environments,” Alex said.
