Swedish prostate cancer test to be introduced in Europe

The new Stockholm3 test, which improves prostate cancer diagnosis, gets assistance from EIT Health for a faster introduction in Europe. In a first step the test will be clinically validated in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. The Stockholm3 test was developed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

EIT Health, supported by the EU body European Innovation and Technology (EIT), will provide financing for clinical validation of the Stockholm3 test in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. This will be carried out together with Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erasmus Universitair, Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Universiteit Gent. The British prostate cancer foundation has previously announced that it will financially support the evaluation of the test in the British health care system.

The Stockholm3 test is a blood test that finds 20 per cent more aggressive prostate cancer while at the same time reducing the number of unnecessary biopsies by 50 per cent, compared to current clinical practice. It has been available to the Swedish healthcare since December 2016.

The Stockholm3 test combines five protein markers, over 100 genetic markers, clinical data and a decision algorithm to detect the risk of aggressive prostate cancer. The test is based on research conducted at Karolinska Institutet. It has been tried on men 50-70 years in a clinical study which included almost 60,000 participants. The results have been published in numerous scientific journals, including The Lancet Oncology, Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology and European Urology Focus.

The research to develop the Stockholm3 test was financed by the Stockholm County Council and developed in collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientific. Professor Henrik Grönberg at Karolinska Institutet holds patent applications in the field of prostate cancer diagnostics.