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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

A blood test could detect cancers

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A new blood test for cancer has shown promise towards detecting eight different kinds of tumors before they have spread elsewhere in the body, offering hope of early detection, researchers said on Thursday.


Further study is needed before the test — called CancerSEEK — can be made widely available for its projected cost of about $500, said the report in the journal Science.


The study, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, involved 1,005 patients whose cancer — already pre-diagnosed based on their symptoms — was detected with an accuracy rate of about 70 per cent overall.


Cancers were detected in the ovaries, liver, stomach, pancreas, esophagus, colorectal, lung and breast. For five of these cancer types — ovary, liver, stomach, pancreas and esophagus — there are no screening tests available for people of average risk.


The test was able to detect these five with a sensitivity range of 69 to 98 per cent.


In 83 per cent of cases, the test was even able to narrow down where the cancer was anatomically located.


The test is noninvasive and based on combined analysis of DNA mutations in 16 cancer genes as well as the levels of 10 circulating protein biomarkers.


Outside experts said more research is needed to uncover the true accuracy of the test, and whether it would be able to detect cancers before they cause symptoms.


“This looks promising but with several caveats and a significant amount of further research is needed before we can even contemplate how this might play out in screening settings,” said Mangesh Thorat, Deputy Director of the Barts Clinical Trials Unit at Queen Mary University of London.


Nicholas Turner, professor of molecular oncology at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, pointed out that the test’s one-per cent false positive rate may sound low but “could be quite a concern for population screening. There could be a lot of people who are told they have cancer, who may not have it.”— AFP


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