New DNA test identifies prostate cancer risk

A new DNA test can identify men at high risk of recurring prostate cancer with almost 80% accuracy, say scientists.

The biopsy test singles out patients likely to relapse after surgery or radiotherapy by looking for specific genetic changes at 100 sites in DNA.

Researchers from the University of Toronto, Canada, believe the "genetic signature" test will help doctors determine which patients need extra help after initial treatment.

Professor Robert Bristow, lead scientist, said: "Existing methods for identifying high risk patients are imperfect, so new tests are required that are better at predicting which patients will have their cancer recur.

"These men can then be offered additional treatments, such as chemo and hormone therapy, that will combat the prostate cancer throughout their entire body, rather than therapies solely focused on the prostate, in order to improve their chances of survival.

"This is the first report of a test using information derived from biopsy samples that can predict with close to 80% accuracy which men are at high or low risk of their prostate cancer recurring."