Stockholm3 Expected to be Available in U.S. This Year
The test, which has been available in Sweden since 2018, is expected to become commercially available in the United States in early 2024. Dr. Eggener noted that “cost of the test hasn’t been finalized, but will be considerably more expensive than PSA, which is very cheap.”
Commenting on the findings, Bradley McGregor, MD, of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and an ASCO oncology expert, noted that “ultimately, the goal [of prostate screening] is to be able to better decide when a biopsy is going to yield a clinically relevant prostate cancer, [and] this study gives us some insight of the use of the Stockholm3 tool in a more diverse population.
“How the tool will be utilized in the clinic and in guidelines is something that is a work in progress,” he added. “But I think this provides some reassurances that this will have implications beyond just the homogeneous populations in the original studies.”
Dr. McGregor noted that considerations of the issue of cost should be weighed against the potential costs involved in unnecessary biopsies and a host of other costs that can arise with an inaccurate risk assessment.
“If there is a way to avoid those costs and help us have more confidence in the prostate test results and intervene at an earlier stage, I think that’s exciting,” he said.
Dr. Eggener has consulted for A3P Biomedical but had no financial relationship with the company to disclose.