New prostate cancer test avoids unnecessary biopsies

Currently, one of doctors' best methods for detecting prostate cancer is a blood test for prostate-specific antigen, commonly known as the PSA test. Elevated PSA levels may indicate cancer, but the majority of men with an elevated PSA do not actually have prostate cancer.To determine which patients do and do not have cancer, men with an elevated PSA test undergo an invasive procedure called a transrectal biopsy. Prostate biopsies are uncomfortable for patients and carry a small risk of complications. MRI scans are also used to detect prostate cancer, but these can also miss cancerous lesions and come with much higher costs and limited availability. "Our ultimate goal was to determine whether the MyProstateScore test could be a practical, reliable test that could rule out the need for more costly or invasive testing in men referred for a prostate biopsy," says study lead author Jeffrey Tosoian, M.D., M.P.H., a clinical lecturer in urology at Michigan Medicine. Tosoian and two of his co-authors were founders of LynxDX and hold an equity stake in the company. Not all prostate cancers are equally worrisome. Many arise later in life and are so slow growing that the best course of action is to simply monitor them. It is patients with these slow growing cancers or no cancer who, despite elevated PSA levels, could be spared from the more invasive or expensive procedures if doctors had better tests, the researchers say. The validation study included patients seen at academic health centers and in community health settings. Among these 1,525 patients, 338 -- 22% -- had cancers detected on biopsy that were group grade 2 or higher, meaning they were serious enough to warrant immediate treatment. If the MyProstateScore test had been available to patients in the study, 387 biopsies that found no cancer or slow-growing cancer could have been avoided, the study found. Meanwhile, the test would have missed only 10 clinically significant cancers that would have warranted immediate treatment. "The data show that this straightforward, secondary testing approach could reduce the use of more costly and invasive procedures following a PSA test," Tosoian says.

Source: Eurekalert

Prostate cancer symptoms

Prostate cancer occurs in the prostate — a small walnut-shaped gland in men. Symptoms of prostate cancer do not usually appear until the prostate is large enough to put pressure on the tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the penis. This can lead to a number of symptoms related to the bladder. One warning sign in particular can disrupt a person’s sleeping pattern.
According to the NHS, getting up more frequently to urinate during the night may signal the deadly disease. This is medically known as nocturia.
Other bladder-related symptoms include:

Needing to rush to the toilet
Difficulty in starting to urinate (hesitancy)
Straining or taking a long time while peeing
Weak flow
Feeling that a person’s bladder has not fully emptied
Blood in urine or blood in semen
According to Cancer Research UK, the above symptoms are much more likely to be the result of an enlarged prostate gland than cancer.

As men get older their prostate gland enlarges. It isn’t normally cancer but instead a condition called benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), notes the charity. Benign prostatic hyperplasia is the medical term for an enlarged prostate.

The symptoms are similar because BPH is also caused by increased pressure on the tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the penis.

However, if a person recognises any of the symptoms that could be caused by prostate cancer, a person should visit their GP, advised the NHS.

Who is at risk?

It is not clear what causes prostate cancer but certain factors may raise a person’s risk of developing the disease. According to Cancer Research UK, age is a significant risk factor. The disease is most common in men aged 75 to 79 years.

Other risk factors include:

Ethnic group – prostate cancer is more common among men of African-Caribbean and African descent than in Asian men
Family history – having a brother or father who developed prostate cancer before age 60 seems to increase a person’s risk of developing it; research also shows that having a close female relative who developed breast cancer may also increase a person’s risk of developing prostate cancer
Obesity – recent research suggests there may be a link between obesity and prostate cancer and a balanced diet and regular exercise may lower a person’s risk of developing prostate cancer
Diet – research is ongoing into the links between diet and prostate cancer and there is some evidence that a diet high in calcium is linked to an increased risk of developing prostate cancer
Interestingly, height may also raise a person’s risk. As Cancer Research UK explains, taller men have a higher risk than shorter men of getting a faster growing (high grade) prostate cancer or prostate cancer that has spread.

Eating a certain food may reduce a person’s risk of developing the disease.

How to test for prostate cancer

According to the NHS, there’s no single, definitive test for prostate cancer. “Your GP will discuss the pros and cons of the various tests with you to try to avoid unnecessary anxiety,” the health body explained.

A person’s GP is likely to:

Ask for a urine sample to check for infection
Take a blood sample to test your level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) – called PSA testing
Examine a person’s prostate by inserting a gloved finger into their bottom – called digital rectal examination

Eating mushrooms can reduce men's risk of prostate cancer, study reveals

Eating mushrooms can reduce men's risk of prostate cancer, study reveals

Researchers from Tohoku University suggest that consuming mushrooms on a regular basis reduces the risk of prostate cancer in men - especially those aged 50 or older

It’s a love or hate ingredient, but a new study has revealed a link between eating mushrooms and lower risk of prostate cancer.

Researchers from Tohoku University suggest that consuming mushrooms on a regular basis reduces the risk of prostate cancer in men - especially those aged 50 or older.

Dr Shu Zhang, who led the study, said: "Test-tube studies and studies conducted on living organisms have shown that mushrooms have the potential to prevent prostate cancer.

"However, the relationship between mushroom consumption and incident prostate cancer in humans has never been investigated before.

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"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first cohort study indicating the prostate cancer-preventive potential of mushrooms at a population level.”

In the study, the researchers surveyed 36,499 men about their lifestyle choices including food consumption, psychical activity and smoking and drinking habits, and analysed their medical records.

The results revealed that overall, 3.3% of the participants developed prostate cancer during a follow-up period.

However, participants who ate mushrooms once or twice a week had an 8% lower risk of developing the disease, compared to those who ate mushrooms less than once a week.

Surprising effects of green tea on cancer

You might want to consider switching your black tea to green based on two recent human clinical studies into the anti-cancer effects of catechins, antioxidants found in green tea leaves.
Prostate cancer results
A study published in the journal Cancer Research showed that men who supplemented with 600 mg a day of green tea catechins exhibited a preventive effect in the transition from pre-malignant prostate lesions to full blown prostate cancer. Only 3% developed prostate cancer, compared to 30% in the group not taking catechins. The catechins group also had consistently lower PSA levels.
Breast cancer study
In a study reported by the American Association for Cancer Research, a group of women diagnosed with hormone-receptor negative breast cancer were given various doses of green tea catechins (400, 600 or 800 mg, twice daily) or a placebo for a period of six months. The green tea catechins encouraged cancer cell suicide (a good thing!) and inhibited signaling pathways within cancer cells linked to the spread of tumours.
How much?
Although animal studies have shown that high doses of catechins may damage the liver, humans have not shown liver damage at dosages used in the studies above.
Hepatologists suggest not supplementing with more than 10 mg of catechins per kilogram of body weight, daily. For green tea drinkers, 10 cups per day is the recommended limit.
Supplement containing 600 mg of green tea extract could be a typical dose. It also contains chromium and hydroxycitric acid. The synergistic effect of these three ingredients has been shown to help keep blood sugar and triglycerides in the ideal range, burn excess body fat and enhance lean mass when combined with exercise and adequate protein intake
Which type?

•  White tea is very unprocessed, and likewise there's more beneficial chemicals or compounds associated with it.
• Green tea is a little bit more processed, it's been steamed a little bit more; oxidation of the chemicals occur.
• Black tea is the most processed of the tea leaves. The chemicals become more oxidized and there's fewer reported benefits from black tea than green or white tea.