With a team at Johns Hopkins University recently developing
and testing a highly accurate cancer diagnosis procedure, does this represent a
major medical breakthrough on our war on cancer?
By: Ringo Bones
A team at Johns Hopkins University has recently trialed a
method that detects the eight most common forms of cancer with a reliability
and accuracy several magnitudes more than existing cancer screening methods.
Their vision is to provide an annual screening test designed to catch cancer
early and save lives. However, one of the team members said more work was
needed to assess the test’s effectiveness at detecting early-stage cancers. It
has been known for some time now that tumors release tiny traces of their
mutated DNA and proteins that then travels into the bloodstream.
The CancerSEEK-test looks for mutations in 16 genes that
regularly arise in cancer and eight proteins that are often released. The
newfangled cancer test was trialed on 1,005 patients with cancers in the ovary,
liver, stomach, pancreas, esophagus, colon, lung or breast that had not yet metastasized
– i.e. spread to other tissues. Overall, the test found 70-percent of the
cancers. Dr. Cristian Tomasetti, from Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine, told the BBC: “This field of early detection is critical. I think
this can have an enormous impact on cancer mortality.” The earlier a cancer is
found, the greater the chance of being able to treat it.
Five of the eight cancers being investigated by the Johns
Hopkins team have no screening programs for early detection. In some cases, the
test also provided information about the tissue-of-origin of the cancer, but
not all. Pancreatic cancer has so few symptoms and is detected so late that 4
in 5 patients die in the year they are diagnosed with the disease. Finding
tumors when they could still be surgically removed would be “a night and day
difference” when it comes to surviving cancer, says Dr. Tomasetti.
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