Prostate Cancer Liquid Biopsy Biomarkers' Clinical Utility in Diagnosis and Prognosis

Simple Summary In prostate cancer, overdiagnosis and overtreatment is a common problem for clinicians. Accurate diagnosis and prognosis are essential to avoid unnecessary biopsy and to increases the effectiveness of treatment. A new, easy-to-use and non-invasive test based on liquid biopsy biomarkers such as Progensa PCA3, MyProstateScore, ExoDx, SelectMDx, PHI, 4K, Stockholm3 and ConfirmMDx have been developed to improve diagnosis, prognosis and to help guide the decision-making process. This article provides an overview of the above-mentioned commercial tests. The performance and financial aspects of the tests have been compared using available studies. Then the application of biomarker tests as an adjunct to multiparametric MRI in the diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of prostate cancer has been discussed. Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common cancer in men worldwide. The current gold standard for diagnosing PCa relies on a transrectal ultrasound-guided systematic core needle biopsy indicated after detection changes in a digital rectal examination (DRE) and elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level in the blood serum. PSA is a marker produced by prostate cells, not just cancer cells. Therefore, an elevated PSA level may be associated with other symptoms such as benign prostatic hyperplasia or inflammation of the prostate gland. Due to this marker's low specificity, a common problem is overdiagnosis, which leads to unnecessary biopsies and overtreatment. This is associated with various treatment complications (such as bleeding or infection) and generates unnecessary costs. Therefore, there is no doubt that the improvement of the current procedure by applying effective, sensitive and specific markers is an urgent need. Several non-invasive, cost-effective, high-accuracy liquid biopsy diagnostic biomarkers such as Progensa PCA3, MyProstateScore ExoDx, SelectMDx, PHI, 4K, Stockholm3 and ConfirmMDx have been developed in recent years. This article compares current knowledge about them and their potential application in clinical practice.

Automated summary

In prostate cancer, overdiagnosis and overtreatment are common problems. New liquid biopsy biomarker tests have been developed to improve diagnosis, prognosis, and decision-making. The current gold standard for diagnosing prostate cancer relies on digital rectal examination and elevated prostate-specific antigen levels before biopsy.