“What does the NHS Knowledge Service make of this study? This research is at a very early stage, and although the test has been able to measure the level of citrate in small amounts of prostate fluid this was on samples from a small number of healthy men. The technique developed in this preliminary research will now need further testing to see if it can accurately differentiate between prostate fluid from healthy men and men with prostate cancer.

“It will also be necessary to determine whether the method would be able to detect cancer at an early enough stage for treatment to be effective. Even after this, the method would also need to be compared with existing tests, such as the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, to see how it compares.

“It is too early as yet to know whether this test will be effective for the detection or monitoring of prostate cancer, whether it will save lives or how much it would cost.”