Urine test 'new way to spot prostate cancer'

Scientists today revealed a major step forward in developing a simple test to spot prostate cancer.

Researchers have found a chemical fingerprint for the cancer which they say is easily recognisable in a patient's urine.

The team from Michigan University say the chemical, called sarcosine, turns up in large quantities in the urine of men with the deadliest tumours.

They hope the study, published in Nature, will now lead to a quick and easy test for prostate cancer which kills 10,000 men a year in Britain.

Professor Arul Chinnaiyan, who led the research, said: "One of the biggest challenges we face in prostate cancer is determining if the cancer is aggressive.

"We end up over-treating our patients because physicians don't know which tumours will be slow-growing.

"With this research we have identified a potential marker for the aggressive tumours."

The new method could replace the current blood test which experts say is far from 100 per cent accurate.

The researchers analysed samples from 262 men. They found sarcosine in 79 per cent of prostate cancer samples that had spread, 42 per cent of those that were in the early stages of the disease and none in any of the cancer-free samples.

Cancer Research UK said the finding is encouraging, although it warned that more extensive studies are required before a urine test is developed for patients.

The charity's prostate cancer expert, Professor Malcolm Mason, of Cardiff University, said: "Screening for prostate cancer is a difficult issue.

"We need to find a way to distinguish prostate cancers that spread quickly and are likely to be fatal, from those that may not even need treatment. If the biomarker found in the study can do this, it hits the nail on the head."