Blood test to detect two types of cancers
Scientists in Israel are working on developing a blood test that can detect pancreatic and colorectal cancer. Although still in the testing phase, the method is reported to be 92% accurate, and could ultimately be adapted to detect other types of cancer and even other diseases.
This is the promise of a team of researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science, with their findings published in the journal “Nature Biotechnology”.
Once the sample is collected, the researchers subject it to a single-molecule imaging process developed by Dr Efrat Shema, the project’s lead researcher, which allows for epigenetic mapping using a fluorescent microscope.
The researchers are then able to visualise epigenetic markings on nucleosomes, which are pieces of DNA wrapped around protein “spools”. According to Shema, the millions of nucleosomes in the blood can be analysed to detect cancer.
To conduct their research, the specialists compared these DNA extracts from 30 healthy people with those from a group of 60 patients with different stages of colorectal cancer. They then combined their results with artificial-intelligence algorithms.
“Our algorithm could tell the difference between the healthy and the patient groups at a record level of certainty for studies of this type,with 92% precision,” Shema said.
The findings could simplify screening for colorectal cancer – which is currently detectable by colonoscopy, an invasive test that can be daunting for patients – as well as for pancreatic cancer, for which no diagnostic test exists.
While this method has yet to be validated through clinical trials, the specialists hope this approach will one day make it possible to diagnose various forms of cancer, as well as other conditions that leave markers in the blood such as cardiac or autoimmune diseases.
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