A study has determined that the IsoPSA blood test is more accurate at predicting prostate cancer than is the traditional PSA test.
Men have a one-in-five lifetime risk of developing prostate cancer.
Though early detection has an excellent prognosis, a late detection — when the disease has spread to other parts of the body — means a very bleak prognosis.
Most men have heard of the PSA test as it pertains to prostate cancer.
The problem with the traditional PSA test is that it can be low in someone with prostate cancer, and high in someone without this disease.
There is a test that has been shown to be more sensitive than the conventional PSA: the isoPSA.
This new blood test for detecting the probability of prostate cancer was shown to distinguish malignancy from benign conditions as well as identify men with high risk of the disease.
“The IsoPSA is more accurate than a PSA test,” says Matthew Allaway, DO, a urologist who specializes in detecting prostate cancer and the developer of a prostate biopsy technique that improves cancer detection.
“A standard PSA test measures the total amount of PSA protein in the blood, whereas, IsoPSA can detect specific types of PSA proteins that are made by cancer cells.
“By providing clearer, more accurate results, IsoPSA provides greater clarity about the presence of high-grade, aggressive cancer that requires action and the need to do a biopsy.
“In clinical practice, an IsoPSA test reduced biopsy recommendations by more than 50 percent.”
Less Over-Detection, Over-Treatment of Indolent Prostate Cancer
A study was led by Eric Klein, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic and involved 261 men who were scheduled for a prostate biopsy between August 2015 and December 2016.
The prostate specific antigen test has saved many lives, but Dr. Klein notes that it’s tissue-specific, not cancer-specific, “leading to overdiagnosis and overtreatment of biologically insignificant cancers,” he says in the report in the April 2017 European Urology.
The IsoPSA is based on the PSA and was compared to that in the study.
• IsoPSA was better than PSA at telling the difference between benign and malignant tissue.
• It was also superior in detecting high-grade disease.
This study shows that if IsoPSA is used as a standard screening tool, it could cut the incidence of unneeded biopsies by nearly 50 percent.
“The prostate MRI has also become an excellent tool to screen men with high PSA levels prior to deciding whether a prostate biopsy is needed,” says Dr. Allaway.
Here is more information on the isoPSA test.
Dr. Allaway
