New test ‘can diagnose prostate cancer from non-tumour tissue’

US researchers have devised a potential new means of diagnosing prostate cancer that does not require tumour tissue to be detected and analysed.

According to the study in the journal Cancer Research, the presence of tumours in the body causes changes in gene expression in nearby tissue over a distance of a few millimetres.

The scientists believe that by analysing the changes tumours cause in other parts of the body, it will make it easier to identify those at risk, while helping to mitigate the inaccuracy of current prostate biopsies.

Head researcher Dr Dan Mercola, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of California at Irvine, said: "The information in non-tumour tissue … indicates who needs urgent re-biopsy and allows patients to consider alternative therapies to surgery or radiation, such as neoadjuvant therapy or prostate cancer prevention treatment."

He added that interfering with the process of change to non-tumour tissue could also have other therapeutic benefits.

According to Cancer Research UK, prostate cancer is now the most common form of the disease among males in Britain.