Prostate cancer diagnostic offers more specificity than traditional methods

The Prostate Health Index is now available across the USA, offering more accurate detection of prostate cancer in patients with elevated PSA levels.

Beckman Coulter have recently announced that their prostate cancer blood test, the Prostate Health Index (phi), is available to physicians throughout the USA. The test has been shown to be three-times more specific than the traditional PSA test, thus decreasing the number of men needing biopsies to confirm a diagnosis.

PSA is constitutively expressed by the prostate gland; however, it is often found to be elevated when cancer is present. The current assay therefore tests for elevated levels of PSA. This can however give false positives, caused for instance by a benign inflammation. This would then lead to unnecessary biopsy, and with this, preventable health risks. The phi uses three different biomarkers – PSA, freePSA and p2PSA – and uses an algorithm to determine the probability of cancer. This has been shown to be more accurate than the PSA test, and in a multicenter clinical study, a 31% reduction in unnecessary biopsies was observed.

Senior Vice President of the Chemistry/Immunoassay Business Unit at Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, John Blackwood, commented on the announcement: “After years of collaboration with some of the world’s leading prostate cancer researchers and medical institutions who have studied the scientific and clinical benefits of phi, we are pleased that the test is now available to help physicians and patients with an elevated PSA test result more accurately detect prostate cancer.”

Source: Beckman Coulter News; New Prostate Cancer Blood Test Now Available in the US.