A new genetic test for the early detection or prostate cancer may soon be developed. Until now, a patient's risks of having prostate cancer is based on PSA tests which has a relatively low sensitivity.

Now, however, a research group at Karolinska Institutet and their American colleagues have analysed for the first time the cumulative effect of these gene variants. The results, which are published in the prestigious scientific periodical The New England Journal of Medicine, shows that men who carry four or more risk variants run a four to five times greater risk of developing prostate cancer. This risk is increased even more if they also had close relatives with the disease.

The study, which was was based on genetic analyses of approximately 4,800 Swedish men, has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.