A new ultrasensitive prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test may be able to predict cancer reoccurrences and allow for more effective secondary treatments.

Research shows the new test, developed at Northwestern University, is 300-times more sensitive than current commercial tests. The nanoparticle-based technology can detect very low levels of PSA, which show whether or not the cancer has spread beyond the prostate.

“It detects PSA at levels in the blood that cannot be detected by conventional tests,” C. Shad Thaxton, M.D., Ph.D., co-principal investigator, an assistant professor of urology at Northwestern, was quoted as saying. “It may allow physicians to act at the earliest and most sensitive time, which we know will provide the patient with the best chance of long-term survival.”

The new test is also able to indicate whether a secondary treatment, such as radiation and chemotherapy, is working. Researchers say this new testing could become the preferred postoperative PSA test for men.


SOURCE: The American Urological Association's 2010 Annual Meeting, June 2, 2010