Prostate cancer urine test being developed

Gene fusion discovery may lead to a prostate cancer urine test, researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York say.

The finding, published in the journal Cancer Research, says the newly discovered gene fusion is highly expressed in a subset of prostate cancers, which may lead to more accurate tests for prostate cancer.

Senior author Dr. Mark A. Rubin Weill Cornell says the gene fusion biomarker is also a different type of fusion than researchers have found in cancer previously and may represent an entirely new mechanism that cancer cells use to outgrow their healthy neighbors.

The SLC45A3-ELK4 gene fusion is detectable at high levels in the urine of some men at risk for prostate cancer, Rubin says.

If the data are validated, it may be that in the future men could be tested for prostate cancer through a simple urine test. If the fusion gene is present at a high level, they likely have the disease, and if not, they likely don’t have it, Rubin says.

Prostate-specific antigen testing is inadequate. PSA detects men with cancer but also many men with benign conditions, Rubin said in a statement. As we have seen recently from two major studies on PSA screening, for every 50 men with a positive PSA screening, only one man’s life is saved. We urgently need biomarkers to detect clinically significant prostate cancer.