STOCKHOLM, June 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A3P Biomedical, a diagnostics company specializing in prostate cancer screening, today announced the publication of a population-based screening study (N=12,670) in Annals of Internal Medicine. Data from the study showed that the company’s Stockholm3 test (Stockholm3) had a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 89% for detection of aggressive prostate cancer (Grade Group ≥2) in a first line screening setting. PSA ≥3 ng/ml had a sensitivity of 74% and a specificity of 90%. PSA ≥4 ng/ml had a specificity of 95% but a sensitivity of 52%, missing nearly half of the men with aggressive prostate cancer.
“This large-scale, high-quality trial compares a promising alternative screening test to PSA. This may be the breakthrough for prostate cancer screening that we have all been waiting for,” said Kevin C. Oeffinger, MD, Director of the Duke Cancer Institute Center for Onco-Primary Care, Professor of Medicine at Duke University and past Chair and current member of the American Cancer Society Guideline Development Group.
The study included 12,670 men aged 50–74 years participating in the STHLM3-MRI study, with complete two-year follow-up through linkage to the Swedish National Cancer Registry. The study compared Stockholm3 screening with PSA screening for detection of aggressive prostate cancer. Stockholm3 identified 400 out of 443 men with cancer (90%), while PSA ≥3 ng/ml identified 327 (74%) and PSA ≥4 ng/ml identified 231 (52%). The false-positive rates (incorrectly positive results) were similar for Stockholm3 and PSA ≥3 ng/ml (11% vs. 10%) while PSA ≥4 ng/ml had a false-positive rate of 5%.
“PSA is well known to have significant limitations in prostate cancer screening. The increasing adoption of a pre-biopsy MRI into clinical practice has greatly reduced unnecessary biopsies. However, a longstanding limitation of PSA is its poor sensitivity for detection of aggressive disease,” said David C. Grossman, MD, MPH, previous Chair of the United States Preventive Services Task Force and former Vice President for Social Health and Equity for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. “These data suggest that Stockholm3 offers the potential to improve detection of clinically significant prostate cancers without increasing false negatives.”
“This study adds to the already extensive clinical evidence supporting Stockholm3, which includes more than 90,000 men evaluated across over 40 peer-reviewed publications in leading medical journals,” said Martin Steinberg, CEO at A3P Biomedical. “We believe this growing body of evidence brings us closer to establishing Stockholm3 as a first line test for prostate cancer screening.”
About prostate cancer in the U.S.
The United States reports more than 300,000 new prostate cancer cases each year, among the highest incidences worldwide. While survival rates for men with prostate cancer detected early are high, approximately 36,000 U.S. men are expected to die from prostate cancer in 2026, largely driven by aggressive tumors that can go undetected with conventional PSA-based screening.
About Stockholm3
Stockholm3 is a blood-based test that integrates PSA, additional protein biomarkers, a polygenic risk score, and clinical variables in a risk algorithm to identify men at risk of aggressive prostate cancer. It has been evaluated in studies including more than 90,000 men and published in leading journals including The Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, European Urology, and Annals of Internal Medicine. Stockholm3 is an investigational device and is not currently available for sale in the United States.
About A3P Biomedical
A3P Biomedical is a company that specializes in advanced prostate cancer screening with its lead product Stockholm3. A3P Biomedical is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.
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