New test could cut prostate cancer surgery

Scientists have developed a technique which they hope will soon accurately predict the behaviour of prostate cancer and save thousands of men from unnecessary surgery.

The present tests - needle biopsies, blood and urine samples - cannot distinguish satisfactorily between aggressive tumours that require radical treatment and those that just need to be watched.

Doctors at the Institute for Cancer Research now advocate more "active surveillance" - monitoring patients but leaving the option open for treatment.

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But as prostate cancer cases soar past 30,000 diagnoses a year, the race is on for a better test. Almost 10,000 men die from the disease annually but many can have a tumour that is so slow-growing it does not cause ill-effects. For some, therefore, the cure might be worse than the disease.

Researchers at the institute have now come up with a way of analysing tissue samples that will allow far more comprehensive screening for genes associated with prostate cancer, including one, E2F3, whose overexpression is an indicator of how aggressive the cancer may be.