Prostate Cancer Diagnosed Within 20 Minutes Using Urine Test

Successful High-Precision Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer by AI Analysis of Multiple Factors
Potential Application for Precise Diagnosis of Other Cancers Using Urine

Photo by Asia Economy DB

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] A technology that can diagnose prostate cancer, the most commonly detected cancer in men, in just 20 minutes has been developed. It diagnoses through urine with nearly 100% accuracy. With higher accuracy than blood tests or biopsies, it is expected to open a new chapter in prostate cancer diagnosis in the future.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced on the 24th that a research team led by Dr. Lee Gwanhee of the Biomaterials Research Center, in collaboration with Professor Jung Ingap's team at Seoul Asan Medical Center, developed a technology that can diagnose prostate cancer in 20 minutes by combining an electric signal-based biosensor with smart artificial intelligence analysis. The research results were published in the latest issue of the international journal ACS Nano.

To improve the accuracy issues of the existing prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based detection, the research team developed an ultra-high sensitivity semiconductor sensor system capable of simultaneously measuring four trace cancer markers in urine. They then used machine learning to train artificial intelligence on the correlation between these four cancer markers obtained from the sensor and prostate cancer. Subsequently, they developed an algorithm that can diagnose cancer based on the complex patterns of the detected signals. Using this analysis method to diagnose prostate cancer, they identified prostate cancer patients with 95.5% accuracy from 76 urine samples. The research team plans to expand clinical trials in the future to train the diagnostic algorithm with more patient data to improve its accuracy.

Professor Jung Ingap of Seoul Asan Medical Center, who conducted joint research with KIST, said, "This technology can drastically reduce unnecessary biopsies and treatments by accurately screening patients who need surgery or treatment using urine, thereby significantly lowering medical costs and healthcare workers' fatigue." Dr. Lee Gwanhee stated, "The development of a smart biosensor that can rapidly diagnose prostate cancer with nearly 100% accuracy using only urine could be applied to the precise diagnosis of other types of cancer using urine."

Dr. Lee Kwan-hee (center) and Dr. Kim Ho-jun (left) are diagnosing prostate cancer using patients' urine samples with an ultra-sensitive smart biosensor that incorporates artificial intelligence analysis methods.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.