New Screening Test for Prostate Cancer

cPSA Test

The WellMan Clinic has been using the new complexed prostate specific antigen (cPSA) test since November 2004. We are the first (and only, for the time being) clinic in the UK using this method. It has been available for four years in Germany.

Experience is showing that the cPSA test is much more specific in identifying early prostate cancer than the old total prostate specific antigen (tPSA) test, which registers a high result for many benign conditions. A rate of accuracy for cPSA of 90% is suggested by published studies. This, of course, means that many further, and often invasive, investigations become unnecessary.

Being so accurate and specific, cPSA lends itself ideally to routine prostate cancer screening. At present only 6% of men over the age of 45 in the UK have a PSA screen annually, as opposed, for instance, to 65% of German men. The public perception in the UK is that the old tPSA is inaccurate: this is not entirely true, but certainly it can give a false positive result for cancer.

Hopefully the introduction of the cPSA test will encourage more men to come forward to be screened, and on a regular annual basis, as the speed of change from year to year in the level of the PSA is important in assessing the risk of developing cancer.