Urologie pro praxi 4/2023

Increasing the accuracy of prostate cancer diagnostics by glycoprofiling of selected serum oncomarkers: clinical and economic impact per patient

In this work, we briefly describe the possibilities of using the so-called liquid biopsy i.e. the detection of highly tumor-specific markers from body fluids, for the diagnosis of prostate cancer (CaP). For this purpose, it is important to use biomarkers that are organ-specific, such as kallikreins (different forms of PSA). Unfortunately, such biomarkers are not cancer-specific. To increase the reliability of CaP diagnosis, it is therefore necessary to use biomarkers that are organ-specific and at the same time cancer-specific, and such biomarkers include glycoprofiling of fPSA (free form of prostate specific antigen) in the form of Giasay (glycopsy immunoassay) test. The Giasay test provides a high value of AUC = 0.82 (AUC – area under curve i.e. the area under receiver operating curve), much higher compared to kallikrein tests (including PHI, prostate health index), and it also reveals the castration-resistant form or very early stages of the disease in advance. At the same time, the Giasay test reveals, according to the validation results, 63–70% of negative cases of biopsies in the population. These values exceed the laboratory methods available in Slovakia and the Czech Republic for the screening and diagnosis of CaP.

Keywords: Giasay test, fPSA glycoprofiling, glycans, liquid biopsy, diagnostics, biomarkers, biopsies, prostate cancer.