Protein Test for Prostate Cancer Risk

A U.S. pathology laboratory is the first to offer early prostate cancer antigen (EPCA) testing of prostate biopsy tissues in order to detect patients at high risk of developing prostate cancer.

"EPCA provides an additional tool in the management of the disease in that it helps further define the risk of a patient having early-stage prostate cancer,” stated Dr. Ralph Giorno, medical director of Unipath, LLC, a pathology laboratory in Denver (CO, USA). "If EPCA expression is observed in an apparently negative biopsy, more intensive follow-up will be recommended to the physician.” In those prostate biopsies where cancer is not observed, EPCA will provide additional information relative to the patient's risk.

According to an article in the April 2004 issue of the Journal of Urology, study findings by Dr. Robert Getzenberg, director of the Brady Urological Research Institute at Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, MD, USA), indicated that prostate cancer can be detected as many as five years earlier than it is currently being diagnosed, by testing for the EPCA protein in biopsy tissue samples. Dr. Getzenberg explained in the article that EPCA is a protein that indicates the earliest changes that occur in cells during the development of prostate cancer.

EPCA has been developed and commercialized as an early cancer detection marker by Tessera, Inc. (Seattle, WA, USA). The company has obtained exclusive worldwide rights to the use and development of more than 60 protein markers for the early diagnosis of cancers or for drug screening.

"Unipath is pleased to be the first laboratory to offer Tessera's EPCA antibody for predictive testing in prostate carcinoma,” said Tricia Hughey, CEO of Unipath. "Utilized in conjunction with standard evaluation procedures, we at UniPath believe the EPCA test is an important tool in the ongoing surveillance of men at risk for developing prostate cancer.”




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