A peer-reviewed article on Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) has been published in the International Journal of Molecular Science. The study, entitled: Prediction of overall survival by thymidine kinase 1 combined with prostate specific antigen in men with prostate cancer, was done by a research group at Karolinska Institute and Karolinska Hospital.

TK1 was analyzed with AroCells TK210 ELISA in 30-year-old blood samples from a prostate cancer screening executed at Södersjukhuset in 1988-89. TK1 was combined with PSA into one biomarker. Though PSA is the most used blood marker for diagnosis and follow-up of prostate cancer, it is limited by the fact that there are many non-cancer-related reasons for increased PSA values, such as age. TK1, on the other hand, is found to be independent of age and other prostate-related characteristics. The combination of TK1 and PSA identified subgroups of men with more than 10 years difference in survival time. This enables individual treatment of high-risk patients.

The main author, Bernhard Tribukait explains: “Prostate cancer is usually slow-growing and does not always cause symptoms or problems for the patient. Many treatments have side effects that can have a major impact on the patient´s quality of life. Therefore, it is important to be able to distinguish the aggressiveness of the tumor at an early stage. A combination of blood-based biomarkers at low cost can be very valuable, for example, in the choice between active surveillance and radical surgery. In many cases, it can reduce suffering for patients and costs for healthcare.”