A new blood test in development has shown ability to screen for numerous types of cancer with a high degree of accuracy, a trial of the test shows. <\/p>\n
The test, developed by GRAIL, Inc., uses next-generation sequencing technology to probe DNA for tiny chemical tags (methy-lation) that influence whether genes are active or inactive. When applied to nearly 3,600 blood samples \u2013 some from patients with cancer, some from people who had not been diagnosed with cancer at the time of the blood draw \u2013 the test successfully picked up a cancer signal from the cancer patient samples, and correctly identified the tissue from where the cancer began (the tissue of origin). The test\u2019s specificity \u2013 its ability to return a positive result only when cancer is actually present \u2013 was high, as was its ability to pinpoint the organ or tissue of origin, researchers found.<\/p>\n
The new test looks for DNA, which cancer cells shed into the bloodstream when they die. In contrast to \u201cliquid biopsies,\u201d which detect genetic mutations or other cancer-related alterations in DNA, the technology focuses on modifications to DNA known as methyl groups. Methyl groups are chemical units that can be attached to DNA, in a process called methylation, to control which genes are \u201con\u201d and which are \u201coff.\u201d Abnormal patterns of methylation turn out to be, in many cases, more indicative of cancer \u2013 and cancer type \u2013 than mutations are. The new test zeroes in on portions of the genome where abnormal methylation patterns are found in cancer cells.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur previous work indicated that methylation-based assays outperform traditional DNA-sequencing approaches to detecting multiple forms of cancer in blood samples,\u201d said the study\u2019s lead author, Geoffrey Oxnard, MD, of Dana-Farber. \u201cThe results of the new study demonstrate that such assays are a feasible way of screening people for cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the study, investigators analysed cell-free DNA (DNA that had once been confined to cells but had entered the bloodstream upon the cells\u2019 death) in 3,583 blood samples, including 1,530 from patients diagnosed with cancer and 2,053 from people without cancer. The patient samples comprised more than 20 types of cancer, including hormone receptor-negative breast, colorectal, esophageal, gallbladder, gastric, head and neck, lung, lymphoid leukemia, multiple myeloma, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n
The overall specificity was 99.4%, meaning only 0.6% of the results incorrectly indicated that cancer was present. The sensitivity of the assay for detecting a pre-specified high mortality cancers (the percent of blood samples from these patients that tested positive for cancer) was 76%. Within this group, the sensitivity was 32% for patients with stage I cancer; 76% for those with stage II; 85% for stage III; and 93% for stage IV. Sensitivity across all cancer types was 55%, with similar increases in detection by stage. For the 97% of samples that returned a tissue of origin result, the test correctly identified the organ or tissue of origin in 89% of cases.<\/p>\n
Detecting even a modest percent of common cancers early could translate into many patients who may be able to receive more effective treatment if the test were in wide use, Oxnard remarked.<\/p>\n
Dana-Farber Cancer Institutewww.dana-farber.org\/newsroom\/news-releases\/2019\/new-blood-test-capable-of-detecting-multiple-types-of-cancer\/<\/link>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new blood test in development has shown ability to screen for numerous types of cancer with a high degree of accuracy, a trial of the test shows. The test, developed by GRAIL, Inc., uses next-generation sequencing technology to probe DNA for tiny chemical tags (methy-lation) that influence whether genes are active or inactive. When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}