Just a note to highlight what appears to be a novel way of detecting cancers of various types, including prostate cancer. The test uses (easy to get) platelets.
The paper is quite 'technical' but can be read on-line without payment.
https://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/fulltext/s1535-6108(22)00370-1Abstract:
Cancer patients benefit from early tumor detection since treatment outcomes are more favorable for less advanced cancers. Platelets are involved in cancer progression and are considered a promising biosource for cancer detection, as they alter their RNA content upon local and systemic cues. We show that tumor-educated platelet (TEP) RNA-based blood tests enable the detection of 18 cancer types. With 99% specificity in asymptomatic controls, thromboSeq correctly detected the presence of cancer in two-thirds of 1,096 blood samples from stage I-IV cancer patients and in half of 352 stage I-III tumors. Symptomatic controls, including inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases, and benign tumors had increased false-positive test results with an average specificity of 78%. Moreover, thromboSeq determined the tumor site of origin in five different tumor types correctly in over 80% of the cancer patients. These results highlight the potential properties of TEP-derived RNA panels to supplement current approaches for blood-based cancer screening.The authors (more than 50) point out in their discussion that large-scale external validation is required.