New Blood Test for Prostate Cancer

This article talks about an experimental blood test for prostate cancer that seems to work better than the current PSA test. The test is being developed by Dr. Getzenberg in which it looks for a protein called EPCA-2 (an early prostate cancer antigen 2). It has been found that EPCA-2 occurs in large amounts only in prostate cancer cells. According to Dr. Getzenberg, this test is 97% specific in detecting prostate cancer and not people with enlarged or infected prostates. In addition to his studies, his team tried out the EPCA-2 test on blood samples from different groups of people including those with early and late prostate cancer, women who do not have prostate gland, and healthy men with normal PSA levels. As a result, the EPCA-2 test was a lot better than the PSA test in terms of sensitivity and specificity.

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http://www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/news/20070426/new-blood-test-for-prostate-cancer?page=1