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EPCA
EPCA
ANCHOR LEAD: DETECTION OF PROSTATE CANCER MAY NOW GET BETTER WITH USE OF A NEW TEST, ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS
Finding prostate cancer has been hampered by lack of a reliable test to pinpoint the disease, but now Robert Getzenberg and colleagues at Johns Hopkins may have developed one.
GETZENBERG: So we developed this new test for prostate cancer, that picks up this marker EPCA2, and we’ve done a study now which we’ve just published in 385 patients. We’re quite confident that if the test is positive it’s almost a certainty that there’s prostate cancer there. :14
Getzenberg says prostate specific antigen or PSA testing has never been able to isolate cancer from other prostate conditions.
GETZENBERG: We’ve been looking for a more specific marker for prostate cancer and what that means is we don’t want to pick up a lot of things that happen in men as they age which are, for example, BPH, a benign growth of your prostate, or prostatitis, which is an inflammation of your prostate. :13
Getzenberg predicts that an EPCA based test should be available clinically shortly. I’m Elizabeth Tracey reporting.
