What is Stockholm3?

Stockholm3 is a blood test for the early detection of prostate cancer. It measures the levels of 5 protein markers and the presence of multiple genetic markers. The result is a risk score that indicates the risk of prostate cancer that is likely to spread. With elevated risk, a referral to a urologist for further examination is recommended and with low or normal risk a new test within two to six years.

Stockholm3 has been used in clinical practice in Sweden, Norway and Finland since 2019, it is included in European and American prostate cancer guidelines and has been tested on over 75,000 men in Europe. Several major healthcare providers in Europe are using Stockholm3 instead of PSA screening.

Stockholm3 enables earlier detection of prostate cancer

Early detection is the key for the successful detection of prostate cancer. There is evidence showing that 30-50% of all aggressive prostate cancers are found in men with normal PSA results (below 3ng/ml) Stockholm3 has major advantages compared to PSA and other prostate cancer tests:

• Stockholm3 finds high-risk men with normal PSA results.
• Stockholm3 finds twice as many men with aggressive prostate cancer requiring treatment compared to PSA in clinical routine.

Stockholm3 reduces over-detection and unnecessary procedures/anxiety

It’s crucial to understand that many men have benign prostate cancer tumours that won’t pose a threat during their lifetime. Using Stockholm3 before MRI minimises over-detection by identifying men at low risk of harmful prostate cancer, even if their PSA levels are elevated.

For many men, this will mean avoiding unnecessary and uncomfortable procedures like a prostate biopsy as well as the associated stress and worry associated with these procedures and waiting for results. Stockhom3 has been shown to cut the number of unnecessary biopsies in half compared to PSA in clinical practice.

Based on evidence from the large-scale scientific studies

Stockholm3 has been developed by researchers at the Karolinska Institutet and evaluated and validated on over 75,000 men in Sweden, Norway Finland, Germany and Switzerland. A large validation study has recently been conducted in the USA. Over 45 scientific articles have been published about Stockholm3, many in leading scientific journals such as The Lancet Journal and European Urology. Stockholm3 has received awards for its research from the European Association of Urology three years in a row, in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The latest study was published in The Lancet Oncology and awarded the European Association of Urology (EAU) “Prostate Cancer Research Award 2022”.