Doctors may soon use a new genetic "barcode" blood test - besides normal screening - to determine how severe a man's prostate cancer is and how urgently it should be treated.

Researchers in Britain have discovered distinct genetic signatures for prostrate cancer and designed an experimental blood test that reads the genetic changes like a barcode.

The researchers say the blood test could be used alongside existing PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) screening to determine which men need more aggressive or immediate treatment.

Screening and biopsies

For most men, however, screening often leads to biopsies, which are currently the only way to predict the aggressiveness of prostrate cancer. But biopsies are invasive and carry potential complications, according to Johann de Bono, head of the prostate cancer research team at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London.

A blood test, he argues, would be much easier for patients and potentially more accurate, and would allow their cancer to be assessed throughout treatment.

"It can also give information that a biopsy can't, like how a patient's immune system can [influence] survival," de Bono says.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men after lung cancer.

De Bono refers to prostate cancer as a "very diverse disease."He says some people can live with it for years without any symptoms, while others find themselves confronted with an aggressive, life-threatening form.

Distinguishing different types

Read more:
Gene 'barcode' scans men for prostate cancer

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