Saying good riddance to rectal exams
Selon l’Institut national du cancer, le cancer de la prostate reste le premier cancer masculin, suivi par les cancers colorectaux et les cancers du poumon. Son dépistage revêt donc une importance décisive, mais l’examen qui lui est associé est malheureusement souvent redouté. Heureusement, un autre mode de dépistage moins incommodant vient d’être mis au point.
The French National Cancer Institute reports prostate cancer to be the most common form of cancer in men, followed by colorectal cancers and lung cancer. It is thus crucial to be able to detect it quickly and early, yet the examination required for such screening is unfortunately a cause for dread. Luckily, then, a new much less uncomfortable testing method has just been created.
The Prostate Urine Risk urine screening test is the product of research into the expression of three specific genes of prostate cancer: KLK2, which is only expressed in the prostate; TMPRSS2, expressed in approximately 50% of all prostate cancers; and PCA3, which is overexpressed in malignancies.
The results of the first study of this test are promising. It has been proven able to detect the cancer earlier and more effectively than the previous method. As for the patients, they are more than happy to only have to give a urine sample in order to be tested. The next study is already planned to analyse 1500 men from Europe and America, and should provide further confirmation of these results.
1 Martyn Webb, Kate Manley, Mireia Olivan, et al. Methodology for the at-home collection of urine samples for prostate cancer detection. Biotechniques; 29 nov. 2019.