Prostate specific antigen or PSA for short is a protein manufactured in men by the prostate gland. This protein helps fertility as it provides nourishment for sperm it and aids its movement. A small amount of the protein leaks naturally in to the bloodstream. If desired this can be detected by cancer mutation detection assays way of a blood test called a PSA test.
The prostate specific antigen test involves taking a small sample of blood from the vein and then it’s analysed in a laboratory.
A more than usual number of the marker in the blood implies that’something’is happening in the prostate gland. This something is certainly not cancer. Levels may be elevated though contamination of the prostate for instance.
It is essential to comprehend PSA levels do generally correlate with the risk of prostate cancer, nor, the risk of aggressive prostate cancer. An examination performed once a year provides useful information about the rate of change in levels which used is quite helpful. A single raised level should be double checked with the in-patient advised never to ejaculate for 48 hours before the test as this could elevate levels as can vigorous exercise especially cycling.
Is a good or bad thing to check?
There’s presently much debate about whether routine PSA screening is a good or even a bad thing and there remains there is considerable controversy concerning the merits of those tests and prostate screening in general.
For all men inside their later middle years it might seem that such a test is a sensible thing to do. The assay is after all a trusted screening test for guys over 40 and as it really measures a protein in the blood that usually spikes when prostate cancer occurs it’s of no harm. Therefore, it would seem a sensible precaution to have a regular test perhaps once a year or so. Indeed it’s this that many doctors recommend but additionally there are many who don’t.
On usually the one hand will be the camp who point out that deaths for this reason cancer have fallen considerably since screening was introduced – approximately 40% – but on one other side is a disagreement to state that it’s a flawed test which contributed to an upsurge of anxiety, unnecessary surgery medical intervention and overtreatment.
While the debate rages on it’s probably best to view a PSA test as indicator that there is something a base with the prostate which requires further investigation, but is certainly not sinister or life threatening.
Recently, several commercialized prognostic and predictive tests on the basis of the genomic classification of breast cancer have entered the expanding market for diagnostics. Genomic assays examine the expression of an original set of genes that’ll indicate the recurrence of cancer or potential a reaction to treatment. These assays are currently used primarily to predict recurrence of breast cancer and are being extended to indications of hormonal and HER-2 receptor status. Competition in this segment is dependant on introduction of assays using different and more numerous gene sets.
The leaders in the present genomic market are Genomic Health, which offers the Oncotype Dx assay and Agendia, which offers the Mammaprint assay. These tests analyze gene expression and are currently geared towards predicting the recurrence of breast cancer. Although genomics certainly are a promising technology, certain limitations exist. These assays are, generally speaking, applicable to only a subset of cancer patients and are definately not being standardized. They demonstrate significant variability and, since tissue is homogenized for this kind of analysis, all sense of tissue topography and heterogeneity are lost. Interpretation of gene based assays could also end up being difficult. A single gene can produce many different different proteins, indicating the potential of a given cancer cell.
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