Prostate cancer is among the most common causes of mortality among men worldwide. In 2023, 280,000 men were diagnosed with the disease in the U.S., according to National Cancer Institute estimates. About 34,700, roughly about 12 percent of men with prostate cancer, died from it.

One of the main challenges in diagnosing early-stage prostate cancer has been a lack of biomarkers to accurately predict the presence of a tumor. Prostate cancer is often first diagnosed with a blood test to measure prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels. But these can be affected by factors other than prostate cancer. Testosterone therapy, an infected prostate gland or prostatitis, age or an enlarged prostate can all raise PSA levels.

“New, more precise biomarkers than PSA can lead to an earlier diagnosis and better prognoses for men with prostate cancer… [and] can also reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies in healthy men.”

A biomarker of prostate cancer would be a more precise way to predict the presence and severity of prostate cancer with a high degree of accuracy. Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, Imperial College in London and Xiyuan Hospital in China have recently identified several biomarkers for the disease. The team has said their calculations suggest the biomarkers they found were more accurate than the PSA test.

Measuring biomarkers in urine has advantages over the PSA test, according to Mikael Benson, principal investigator on the study. The collection is noninvasive and could possibly be done at home, with the sample then analyzed in the lab.

“New, more precise biomarkers than PSA can lead to an earlier diagnosis and better prognoses for men with prostate cancer,” said Benson, a senior researcher at the Karolinska Institutet in a statement. “It can also reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies in healthy men.”

The calculations suggest the biomarkers researchers found were more accurate than the PSA test.

The researchers analyzed the messenger RNA or mRNA, the blueprint from which genes manufacture proteins, in prostate tumor tissue to identify genes that transformed these cells into cancer cells. The genes were seen as indicators of cancer stage and potential drug targets.

The researchers used the findings of their mRNA analysis to construct digital models of prostate cancer. They applied artificial intelligence to identify proteins that potentially could become biomarkers of prostate cancer in the serum, tissue and urine of more than 2,000 men.

Most doctors start to monitor patients when their PSA levels are above 2.5-3.0 ng/mL. Men with high initial PSA levels, however, can and should get a second PSA test before being treated.

The study is published in Cancer Research.