BALTIMORE, Sept. 2, 2024 – A groundbreaking urine test for prostate cancer, developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins, could soon make painful, invasive biopsies a thing of the past.
New Urine Test Offers Hope for Less Invasive Prostate Cancer Detection
Table of Contents
A novel biomarker panel in urine shows critically important promise for identifying prostate cancer with high accuracy, perhaps sparing men unnecessary procedures.
- Researchers identified three key urine biomarkers (TTC3, H4C5, EPCAM) for prostate cancer detection.
- The new test demonstrated high accuracy in both growth adn validation studies.
- This approach could substantially reduce the need for invasive prostate biopsies.
- The test shows promise for detecting cancer even when PSA levels are normal.
What is the new urine test for prostate cancer? A new diagnostic method analyzes three specific biomarkers in urine to detect prostate cancer, aiming to reduce the need for invasive biopsies.
Prostate cancer, a leading cause of death for men in the U.S., often relies on PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood tests for initial screening. While PSA tests are common, they aren’t always precise. This means many men undergo biopsies, which can be uncomfortable and sometimes yield false negatives, leading to further uncertainty or unnecessary procedures.
The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center team, along with colleagues from Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and four other institutions, has identified a powerful trio of biomarkers in urine: TTC3, H4C5, and EPCAM. These molecules, present in prostate cancer cells, were found to be significantly elevated in urine samples from patients with the disease. Crucially, their levels dropped dramatically after prostate-removal surgery, confirming their origin in prostate tissue.
A Trio of Biomarkers Signals Prostate Cancer
the research, published on Sept. 2 in eBioMedicine, details how these three biomarkers work together. TTC3 is involved in cancer cell division, H4C5 helps regulate chromatin structure within cells, and EPCAM is a protein frequently overexpressed in many cancers, especially those originating from epithelial tissue.
In testing,this three-biomarker panel demonstrated remarkable results. It achieved an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.92, a strong indicator of its diagnostic capability. The test accurately identified prostate cancer 91% of the time and correctly ruled out the absence of cancer 84% of the time in a validation group.
This innovative urine test boasts an AUC of 0.92, signifying robust diagnostic performance.
Furthermore, the panel proved superior to PCA3, another urine-based marker, in distinguishing between prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a common non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate. The panel also maintained diagnostic accuracy in 78.6% and 85.7% of PSA-negative prostate cancer cases in the development and validation studies, respectively, with an AUC of 0.89 for distinguishing cancer from benign conditions.
Reducing Unnecessary Biopsies
“This new biomarker panel offers a promising, sensitive and specific, noninvasive diagnostic test for prostate cancer,” stated Ranjan Perera, Ph.D., senior study author and director of the Center for RNA Biology at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. Perera, also a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, added that it could accurately detect cancer, cut down on unnecessary biopsies, and improve diagnosis for PSA-negative patients.
The implications are significant. Current PSA screening can flag elevated levels even in the absence of cancer, leading to biopsies that come back negative. This can cause distress and complications.The new urine test, however, can detect prostate cancer even when PSA
