Scientists have recently developed a genetic test that reveals how long a prostate cancer patient is likely to live. These genetic tests illustrate whether a man needs urgent surgery, drug treatment to stop the disease spreading from spreading or some other approach. Researchers believe it can save thousands of men from painful, unnecessary therapies every year.

Dr Alison Reid, of the ICR, who led the study said, "We found that patients who had none of the genetic alterations had a good prognosis - 85.5 per cent were still alive after 11 years".

She further added, "The presence or absence of the abnormalities had a major impact on a patient's risk of dying from prostate cancer. Our findings suggest that men diagnosed with prostate cancer could be tested for all three genetic alterations, and this information could be used to help determine how aggressively they should be treated".

Prof Colin Cooper, part of the research team said, "Some prostate cancers grow so slowly that they never require treatment while others are aggressive and can be fatal. There is an urgent need to find biological markers like these that will help us distinguish between the two groups of patients."

Around 35,000 cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed every year in Britain. Once it reaches the fatal stage, this disease kills more than 10,000. Now scientists believe that looking at men's genes could suggest how they should be treated. The team studied genes taken from 308 patients and it follows the discovery of three genetic mutations.