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Very early and extremely accurate diagnostic test for prostate cancer

Medicine

You may know Dr Judith O’Malley-Ford from her videos, as the author of The Australian Medical Dictionary or for her work as the editor of the Queensland Prostate Cancer News. She is also the co-author of a paper “Fibre Diffraction Analysis of Skin Offers a Very Early and Extremely Accurate Diagnostic Test for Prostate Cancer” which was recently published in the Journal of Cancer Research.

The study examined skin samples from 30 patients who were undergoing either prostate biopsy or radical prostatectomies at the Wesley Hospital. Fibre diffraction analysis (FDA) was carried out and:

  • All 20 perineural and the one lymphatic invasion were correctly identified
  • All normal and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) samples were correctly identified
  • All high and low grade prostate cancers were correctly identified
  • There was one sample which was identified as prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia on histology where the FDA showed BPH and a low angle prostate cancer, which could be an early diagnosis

The study concluded that the FDA method is able to provide earlier and more accurate diagnoses than are currently in use in a clinical setting, and that it could be used with MRI instead of prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests and biopsies.

Click here for the complete report of the study published by Journal of Cancer Research.

Prostate cancer is one of the excuses for Australian men to grow a moustache in the month of November as part of the Movember Foundation’s campaign. Click here for details on how to get involved in the men’s health cause.

More from Dr Judith O’Malley-Ford:

 

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