Home Urine Test Helps in Early Detection of Prostate Cancer

A prostate cancer diagnosis has now become easy with a simple “Home Urine Test":  Gone are the days where men have to go for an aggressive and uncomfortable rectal examination and go physically to provide a urine sample for the diagnosis of Prostate cancer. Researchers’ latest study revealed that the "PUR" test (Prostate Urine Risk) could be performed on samples of urine collected at home.

The new research is from the University of East Anglia and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, which states the first urination of the day provides biomarker levels from the prostate that are much higher and more consistent. Lead researcher from Jeremy Clark stated, "Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men and usually develops slowly where the majority of cancers will not require treatment in a man’s lifetime. But it is equally necessary to find which tumors are likely to cause much trouble, and accordingly, the treatment ways need to be found out."

The PUR test at home provides accurate results and predicts whether patients would require clinically standard treatments or less than five years of treatment. A person who is tested negative would need to step into the hospital every two to three years, only facilitating stress-free conditions for the patients and reducing hospital workload. PUR test looks at gene expression in urine samples and provides vital information about whether cancer is an aggressive or low risk.

A simple "At-home collection kit" will indeed revolutionize the diagnosis where men need not go for a painful digital rectal examination.

The research team provided 14 participants with an "At-home collection kit." They juxtaposed the home collection samples with the one collected after digital rectal examination. It was surprising to see that the “at-home collection” sample provides the biomarkers of prostate cancer clearly than the rectal examination. The university receives more than 800 referrals a year to investigate the true samples and treat potential prostate cancer. These findings could also help pioneer the development of home collection tests for bladder or kidney cancer.