Prostate Cancer

In Europe, prostate cancer is the second most frequent lethal malignancy in men. Yearly about 40,000 men die of prostate cancer in the EU countries.

Prostate cancer screening

The current gold standard for prostate cancer screening is serum Prostate Specific Antigen level (PSA) in combination with Digital Rectal Exam (DRE). Men who have more than 2,5 ng/ml of PSA are considered a risk group for prostate cancer. Although routine PSA screening has resulted in earlier detection of prostate cancer, PSA levels can be elevated due to other conditions such as non-specific Prostatitis and Benign Prostate Hyperplasia (BPH). A major disadvantage of the PSA marker is its low specificity, resulting in a significant amount of false biopsy indications associated with elevated costs in patient care. It is estimated that up to 70 % of biopsies performed annually do not reveal any prostate cancer in Europe.

UNIArray^® technology identifies novel auto-antigen candidates

Protagen AG and the Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Urology, have successfully identified novel auto-antigen candidates by comparative screening of well characterized prostate cancer serum samples versus a control group of healthy serum samples using the proprietary UNIArray^® technology. We are currently assessing the technical feasibility of detecting prostate specific auto-antibodies in serum as a new diagnostic approach to improve on the predictive value of PSA screening for prostate cancer, and to determine which patients require rigorous clinical follow-up (biopsy, PSA monitoring). The validation program is taking place as a multi-centre trial with the world renowned urology department of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, Maryland, USA and the Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Urology, Austria, Europe.