Stefánsson and his colleagues describe the new genetic supplement to the PSA test in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
For their study, they used genetic samples from about 2,500 men in Iceland and Britain. Iceland's population is famously homogeneous, and the British component was mostly men of European descent, which raises the question of how reliable the results would be for men of other ethnic groups. Stefánsson acknowledges the issue.
"Most of the drugs on the market today have been developed by doing clinical trials in people of European descent. So there is always a bit of a concern that some of them may work less well for people of other ethnic backgrounds, and the same thing applies to diagnostic instruments."
That may be especially true for Africans and men of African descent, he said, because they have higher rates of prostate cancer and die more often of the disease.
Kári Stefánsson of deCODE Genetics says the genetic supplement to the PSA test could be on the market as soon as next year.
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2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27