“There are an increasing collection of tests that sample other aspects of prostate cancer in urine, blood or tissue, including acquired gene defects in the disease and acquired changes that cancers display that normal cells don’t,” says William G. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. “I would argue that the collection of tests have just started. Some have just begun to get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but none of them have yet been approved for screening purposes. In addition, there are modified PSA assays that increase the predictive value of PSA to diagnose higher-risk disease. The good news is that these screening processes are improving and will improve more as some of these new molecular tests become widely available.”
Watch an AACR Webinar about cancer screening.