HealthMedical XpressDiagnostic test could help doctors refine prostate cancer treatment
A new genomic test called Decipher could help doctors decide which prostate cancer patients actually need more aggressive treatment, potentially sparing others harsh side effects.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men—in 2013, it affected more than 1 million men across the world. The cancer does not behave the same way in every patient, and doctors have long faced a difficult balancing act between identifying patients who will benefit from more intensive treatment and those who may do just as well without it. Treating someone more aggressively than necessary is associated with increased side effects and poorer quality of life.
Researchers from University College London presented findings showing a genomic test could personalise prostate cancer treatment decisions at a major cancer conference in Madrid.
The Decipher test was analysed across data from over 27,000 men, and every 0.1 increase in score raised the risk of distant cancer spread with a hazard ratio of 1.49, the study found.
Men with high-risk prostate cancer but a low Decipher score could potentially be spared more intensive treatment and its side effects, the lead researcher said.
The Decipher test predicted which men with high-risk, node-negative prostate cancer would benefit from adding abiraterone, so it may be worth asking an oncologist about genomic testing options.
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