Novel Prostate Cancer Screening Method Could Prevent Unnecessary Biopsies

A multiparametric blood test for prostate cancer showed potential to avoid more than half of unnecessary biopsies without sacrificing accuracy, according to a large prospective study presented at this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

In this exclusive MedPage Today video, investigator Scott Eggener, MD, of the University of Chicago, describes the trial and takeaway message from the results.

Following is a transcript of his remarks:

So I am happy to present at GU ASCO the SEPTA trial, which evaluated Stockholm3, which is a blood-based biomarker being evaluated in men going for prostate biopsy.

This was a prospective trial at 17 sites that enrolled over 900 men in North America and enriched for racial and ethnic minorities that are traditionally underrepresented in prostate cancer trials. And then this was coupled with banked blood from 1,200 folks that were well-annotated on their clinical and pathologic characteristics.

And the take-home message is pretty simple. This blood-based biomarker, Stockholm3, it was set up as the primary endpoint, a relative sensitivity compared to a PSA [prostate-specific antigen] control, and it met its endpoint for a relative sensitivity of picking up nearly all, basically 88-92% of all patients that had grade group 2 or higher.

But equally, if not more important, the specificity was two to three times as high as a traditional PSA cutpoint of 4 [ng/mL]. So it outperformed on specificity both in the overall cohort and in each racial and ethnic subcohort.

And so the bottom line is 40-50% of people cannot undergo a biopsy if they use the Stockholm3, and you’re still picking up nearly all the men with grade group 2.

And then additionally, it’s a big win because it’s one of the biggest prostate cancer trials ever that has enrolled racial and ethnic minorities. And so that’s a big win.

And the test is expected to be commercially available in the U.S. sometime this upcoming year in 2024.