Currently, there are multiple, advanced cancer screening
techniques in place that can give clear diagnoses of specific types of cancers.
Some of these include the faecal occult blood test (FOBT) in determining
colorectal cancer, mammography in breast cancer, and cervical cytology tests in
cervical cancers (Cree, 2011). With most of these diagnostic screenings coming
at a high price, blood tests are becoming more appealing due to their inexpensiveness.
Not only will it be cost efficient, but it could aid in early detection for a larger
number of individuals with premature cancer and precancerous conditions (Cree, 2011).
Early detection will be advantageous in getting these patients the treatment
they need sooner and immensely increasing their odds of survival.
Just this year, a research team created a blood test,
called CancerSEEK, that can identify the presence of eight different forms of
cancer (Burki, 2018). This test assays circulating tumor cell DNA in the blood
in combination with detecting cancer protein biomarkers (Burki, 2018). A total
of 1,005 non-metastatic (breast, colorectum, liver, lung, esophagus, ovary,
pancreas, and stomach) cancer patients were involved within the study. Within
the 1,005 patients, 20% had stage I cancer, 43% had stage II, and 73% had stage
III (Burki, 2018).
The CancerSeek sensitivity reported a median of 43%
for stage I disease, 73% for stage II, and 78% for stage III (Burki, 2018).
Looking at specific cancer types, median sensitivity of breast cancer was
reported at 33% and ovarian cancer at 98% (Burki, 2018). Out of the 812 healthy
controlled individuals, only 7 were misdiagnosed proving CancerSEEK is 99% effective
in diagnosing the presence of cancer. However, the blood test still needs to be
refined to better diagnose those specific cancer types that did not report too
well. With the use of the blood test as an efficient cancer screening program,
it could be used to diagnose asymptomatic patients sooner so they may get either
preventative or early treatment before cancer progression.
Burki, T. K. (2018). New cancer blood test
developed. The Lancet.Oncology, 19(3), 1.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(18)30068-8
Cree, I. A. (2011). Improved blood tests for cancer
screening: General or specific? BMC Cancer, 11, 499. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2407-11-499
I believe this is a very exciting development in the fight against cancer. There has been a big shift towards early detection in recent years, as cancer is typically easier to treat in its early stages, particularly before it has become metastatic. I agree that it is important we find detection methods that are less expensive and less invasive than many of the standard detection methods used today. Blood tests are a great way to achieve these goals. Another promising method of future detection is through urinalysis. Methods have already been developed to use urine as a detection method for prostate cancer. The benefit of analyzing urine is that it can provide valuable information from the kidneys, urinary tract, and other organs based on what is filtered into the urine. It is also easy to collect and relatively inexpensive to analyze. The downside to urinalysis is that small concentrations of biomarkers are found in the urine. This means that detection methods must be able to pick up very small amounts of these biomarkers. (Bax, Taverna, Eusobio, Sironi, Grizzi, Guazzoni, & Capelli, 2018) Overall, both blood and urine have the potential to become common cancer detection methods, and it will be exciting to see how research on this topic continues to unfold.
ReplyDeleteReference:
Bax, C., Taverna, G., Eusebio, L., Sironi, S., Grizzi, F., Guazzoni, G., & Capelli, L. (2018). Innovative Diagnostic Methods for Early Prostate Cancer Detection through Urine Analysis: A Review. Cancers, 10(4). https://doi-org.dml.regis.edu/10.3390/cancers10040123