The scientists discovered a set of single-letter variations in the sequence of the human genome (SNPs), which can affect individual baseline levels of prostate specific antigen, or PSA.
According to the scientists, an analysis of four SNPs can be utilised to obtain a personalised PSA threshold, which would identify men who would be more likely to have a positive biopsy and for whom PSA testing should be recommended.
deCODE CEO Kari Stefansson said the reported SNPs enable the personalization of PSA thresholds, thereby changing the recommendation on whether to biopsy for a substantial proportion of men.
"Moreover, the discriminatory power of testing for these SNPs is highest when done in tandem with the SNPs associated directly with risk of the disease measured by our deCODE ProstateCancer test," Stefansson said.
For the study, researchers analysed SNPs in tens of thousands of men with and without prostate cancer to obtain the four SNPs correlated with PSA levels.
