This common cancer can be diagnosed from today with the help of a blood test

The Ministry of Health recently approved a new blood test for the diagnosis of prostate cancer, and some of the funds even included it in the supplementary insurance.

Here's everything you need to know about her

Voila system!

health

10/31/2022

Monday, October 31, 2022, 2:36 p.m. Updated: 2:49 p.m.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share by email

• Share in general

• Comments

  Comments

Iris Cole interviews Prof. Mario Sofer on the subject of benign prostate enlargement (Walla system!)

Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer among men in Israel and worldwide.

According to data from the Ministry of Health and the Cancer Society, each year approximately 2,700 new prostate cancer patients are discovered in Israel, and approximately 420 men die from the disease.

Until now, men who were suspected of being sick due to a change in the prostate had to undergo an invasive biopsy, but now a simple blood test is changing the rules of the game.

The Ministry of Health approved the use a few weeks ago of a new test that makes it possible to assess the risk of the presence of aggressive prostate cancer at a high level of accuracy.

The new blood test is called IsoPSA and allows most patients to avoid a painful and unnecessary invasive biopsy.

Who is the test suitable for?

The test is intended for men aged 50 and over with PSA (or Prostate specific antigen) values ​​above 4 in a normal test and a referral from a urologist.

Its cost is NIS 2,990.

Klalit Perfect allows you to receive a refund of 75 percent of the cost, Leumit Zahav a refund of 80 percent, and soon other health funds are also expected to join.

At the same time, it is already included in most private health insurances in Israel.

More in Walla!

Your stomach affects the risk of getting prostate cancer

To the full article

Now doctors will be able to send for a biopsy only those who are at real risk of aggressive cancer.

Prostate cancer (Photo: ShutterStock)

Blood sampling for the IsoPSA test is carried out in 8 laboratories, clinics and institutes throughout the country.

The blood samples are sent frozen to a laboratory in the United States for the purpose of performing the test and decoding and the answer is received within 10 days by e-mail to the patient and his urologist.

The results come as a numerical value that clearly reflects a positive or negative result that allows a simple and accurate interpretation by the doctor and the patient.

How It Works?

The new blood test developed by the American biotechnology company Cleveland Diagnostics (Cleveland Diagnostics) identifies the change in the protein structure that results exclusively from a cancerous tumor.

The exact test result allows the doctor to more reliably determine whether it is a patient with prostate cancer.

To date, tests for prostate cancer, including the newest ones, have only been able to measure the change in the concentration of the PSA protein, which is affected by many other factors other than cancer, such as benign enlargement of the prostate, urinary tract infection and medication use.

This is the reason why in many cases a biopsy conducted following other tests yielded answers that were only suspected to be cancer but were of no clinical significance.

For example, out of a million biopsies in the US, only 250,000 were found to be cancerous, meaning 75 percent of the tests came out negative and therefore may have been unnecessary.

"The blood test is a dramatic innovation that allows us as doctors to more accurately diagnose prostate cancer, which is the most common type of cancer in men in Israel," explained Prof. Ofer Nativ - an expert in urological surgery and a scientific consultant for testing in Israel.

"It is important for us to provide our patients with the most advanced test that the world of science has developed, which has proven reliable in clinical studies in order to prevent unnecessary biopsies of cases without a tumor or the discovery of malignancies that have no clinical significance. This means that thanks to the decoding of the new test, we can only send for biopsy the Those who are at real risk of aggressive prostate cancer," he added.

• health

• news

Tags

• prostate cancer

• cancer