Dr Christian Tamasetti and his team at Johns Hopkins have developed a variation of a blood test called a ‘Liquid Biopsy’ to detect early signs of cancer.
The screening test, which they have called CancerSEEK, looked for 8 proteins and mutated DNA in the blood, detecting 70 per cent of the people who had cancer at a very early stage before the cancer had spread.
The research used specific analysis for ovarian, breast, oesophageal, pancreatic, stomach, colorectal, liver and lung cancer. While the preliminary trial was done with approximately 1000 people, a larger trial of 10,000 is now planned.
Chris Woollams former Oxford University Biochemist and founder of CANCERactive said, “Hardly a month goes by with another new blood test being developed for the early detection of cancer. However, this time it looks for real. Liquid Biopsy is being introduced right now as a way of discovering quickly whether or not cancer drugs are working. Now, this variation aims to detect cancer early. Interestingly, 5 of the cancers studied were currently cancers where there is limited early screening available and late detection severely limits survival. Frankly, simple blood detection tests must become commonplace in five years’ time. Politics are involved though. It could make current screening systems, mammograms and colonoscopy redundant”.