The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the PSA test along with a digital rectal exam to help detect prostate cancer in men age 50 and older . Doctors often use the PSA test and DRE as prostate cancer screening tests; together, these tests can help doctors detect prostate cancer in men who have no symptoms of the disease. Most men with an elevated PSA test, though, turn out not to have cancer; only 25 to 30 percent of men who have a biopsy due to elevated PSA levels actually have prostate cancer, so researchers are working hard to find new clues. Experts are trying to develop better blood tests that might alert people to malignancies while the cancers are still in their early stages. For example, several new blood tests for ovarian or prostate cancer are under development.

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