Spit test to predict which men will get prostate cancer being hailed as 'holy-grail of healthcare'

A split test to predict which men will develop prostate cancer has been hailed as “the holy grail for the future of healthcare”. Health Secretary Wes Streeting has signed off on an trial of the potentially game-changing DIY procedure.

If successful, men will be screened for genetic risk from the age of 40, with some fast-tracked for further regular tests. Mr Streeting told us: “More than catching cancer early, the real prize is predicting and preventing it.

“The Institute for Cancer Research, in partnership with the Royal Marsden NHS Trust, will create a test that uses saliva to identify risk of prostate cancer. “From the comfort of your own home, you’ll be able to do a simple test that could save your life, before cancer has even developed. This is the holy grail for the future of healthcare.”

Between one in four and one in five men fall into the higher-risk group for prostate cancer during their lifetime. Identifying them could transform survival chances for a disease that claims more than 12,000 lives a year.

The trial will identify men likely to develop the cancer so they can then be offered checks every year. These will include prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood tests and an MRI body scan. If either returns abnormal results a biopsy will be carried out.

Earlier trials suggest the new method is nearly twice as effective at detecting prostate cancer as the existing PSA blood test alone. Currently, the PSA test is not routinely offered to men because it produces too many false positives, but it can be requested by the over-50s if they start to experience any symptoms.

The PRODICT test costs £400, which the scientists behind it insist is cheaper than an MRI scan. Trial leader Prof Ros Eelese, of the ICR, who works as a consultant in cancer genetics at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are not talking about a test that costs thousands of pounds and it’s going to get cheaper over time. This has the potential to save thousands of lives. We are looking to find more cases much earlier, which should result in better survival rates.”

In the £2million trial, 1,000 men will be offered the at-home test by their GP. It looks for genetic variations in the DNA code, which have known links to prostate cancer. Participants will spit into the test-tube gizmo and post it back so it can be analysed at a laboratory. They will then be monitored for three years.

If the trial is successful, the test could be rolled out on the NHS within five years and become part of the NHS Health Check, which is offered every five years to everyone in the country aged between 40 and 74.

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Last week, we revealed the Health Secretary had announced funding for a blood test that can detect at an early stage 12 of the most lethal and common cancers – including those of the lung and breast.