A spit test to detect men at increased risk of prostate cancer has started early trials. The new DNA test looks for high-risk genes that are thought to affect one in every 100 men.
Three hundred men are taking part in the trials, from three London GP surgeries. Developing better diagnostic tests that could be used as part of a nationwide screening programme is a research priority for prostate cancer.
At present, there is no single, reliable test for prostate cancer. The PSA blood test, biopsies and physical examinations are all used. But the PSA can give false positives and sometimes misses more aggressive cases.
The new DNA test was created by a group of international scientists based at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London. They studied more than 140,000 men and identified 63 new genetic variations that can increase the risk of prostate cancer.
The DNA test combines those variants with more than 100 others previously linked to prostate cancer. Ros Elees, professor of oncogenetics at the ICR, said the study was "very significant".
Only those men found to be at higher risk of prostate cancer would then be scanned and have a prostate biopsy, so researchers hope it could prevent unnecessary procedures.
The trial will be expanded to 5,000 men next year. The study is published in the journal Nature Genetics and was funded by the the National Cancer Institute in the US, with additional support from the European Research Council, Cancer Research UK and Prostate Cancer UK.
