Researchers at Dana Farber Cancer Institute said that the test is based on their new discovery of four genes that appear to play a critical role in determining prostate cancer's aggressiveness.
This four-gene signature method accurately identified 83 percent of deadly prostate tumors from tissue samples taken in a national health study.
Furthermore, when researchers used their new test in combination with the Gleason scale, a standard method to study prostate tumor's aggressiveness, the results accurately identified more than 90 percent of tumors that later killed patients.
"This would have 92 percent accuracy relative to what we currently have, which is at best 75 percent accuracy," said senior author Dr. Ronald DePinho.
The molecular signature was identified as Pten, Smad4, SPP1, and CyclinD1. The work was accomplished by integrating a variety of techniques -- computational biology, genetically engineered model systems, molecular and cellular biology, and human tissue microarrays.
The scientists say that, within a year, they hope to develop a clinical test that can predict who is at the risk of prostate cancer.
The new method could enable doctors and patients to make better decisions after the diagnosis of prostate cancer which is commonly over-treated today, researchers wrote in the journal Nature.
"The vast majority of prostate cancers would not become life-threatening, even when left untreated. But because we can't accurately forecast which are likely to spread and which aren't, there is a tendency to unnecessarily subject many men to draconian interventions," DePinho added.
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