Research suggests cheap and simple spit tests may be better at catching the disease than blood tests.
Saliva tests carried out at home are better at identifying men who are at higher risk of prostate cancer than the standard blood test, new research suggests.
The at-home test could identify genetic factors which make men more likely to develop the disease which claims around 12,000 lives a year in the UK.
The study was carried out by the Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
They hoped the findings could “turn the tide on prostate cancer”.
The UK does not have a national screening programme for prostate cancer because blood tests are not considered accurate enough and can pick up non-life threatening forms of the disease over aggressive types.
Researchers believe the cheap and simple testing method could help catch the disease earlier and save lives.
The latest study involved more than 6,000 European men aged 55-69, an age bracket where the risk of developing is increased.
The researchers then used blood and saliva tests on a smaller group of those men who were found to have genetic variations in their DNA indicating a higher likelihood of developing the cancer.
Preliminary results from the research show the saliva test produced fewer false positives and picked up a higher proportion of aggressive cancers.
Following an MRI scan and biopsy, 40% of men with high scores from the saliva test were diagnosed with prostate cancer.
For standard blood tests, only 25% of men with a high PSA level will actually have prostate cancer, the researchers said.
Institute of Cancer Research chief executive Professor Kristian Helin said the standard blood test “can cause men to go through unnecessary treatments and, more worryingly, it’s missing men who do have cancer”.
