Private MD News

PSA testing may be useful tool in fight against breast cancer

Category: Breast

The PSA test is one of the most common and effective ways for doctors to diagnose prostate cancer in their patients. But now a group of Chinese researchers believe the same procedure may become a useful tool in detecting breast cancer, as well.

Researchers from the National Yang-Ming University said that prostate specific antigen is generally thought of as a product of the prostate gland, which women lack. However, females do have smaller levels of the protein circulating in their bloodstream and the team thinks that a spike in the level of PSA could signal the presence of breast cancer.

There is one catch, however. PSA levels in women tend to be very low and are difficult to detect with current tools. For this reason, the researchers are working on developing a new system involving fiber optics and gold nanoparticles that could detect PSA molecules in much smaller quantities.

This could lead to much more accurate breast cancer testing. While current measures are generally considered to be good tools in identifying tumors, many women are still misdiagnosed. PSA testing could produce much more accurate results.