New Blood Test Screens for Cancers With 99.4% Accuracy
In the vast majority of cases, cancer is
not the fatal diagnosis it once was, but the key to recovery is early
detection, which is still a problem for those cancer types that are more
difficult to diagnose at earlier stages. But even here, the world of
medicine is constantly making significant progress, and an excellent
example of this is a new blood test that is capable of detecting over 20
types of cancer, including the more difficult-to-diagnose varieties
like cervical, pancreatic, colorectal and breast cancer, with a 99.4%
accuracy.
What Is This Test? 
The blood test is based on cutting-edge genetic research that attempts
to detect the genetic changes that happen to their DNA when a person is
suffering from cancer. More specifically, the test looks for abnormal
methylation in the DNA, which is a process when the DNA is altered by
compounds known as methyl groups. The presence of these genetic
abnormalities can point to different cancers, which is exactly what this
new blood screening is trying to pinpoint.
The test was developed by Harvard University scientists at the
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and it has recently undergone a series of
trials suggesting the test is effective at diagnosing many different
cancers. Out of the 3,586 blood samples collected from both cancer
patients and healthy controls alike, the test identified cancer patients
correctly with amazing 99.4% precision.
Furthermore, the scientists checked how
well the test approximates the origin of the cancer, and it turns out
that the test gets that right as well with 89% precision. But one of the
greatest goals of the study was to show that the blood test is capable
of detecting 14 high-risk cancers that account for 63% of cancer deaths,
such as esophagus, breast, lung, gastric, ovary, pancreatic cancer, and
others.
These cancers were detected correctly with 76% accuracy. More
specifically, within this high-risk cancer group, the test accurately
detected Stage I cancer 32% of the time, stage II - 76%, Stage III -
85%, and Stage IV - 93%. This is a great success, as many of these high
mortality cancers are typically found in more advanced and
difficult-to-treat stages.
Overall, this one blood test successfully detected ⅓ of patients with
stage one cancer and ¾ of those suffering from stage two cancer, so it
has an excellent potential of really improving current diagnostic
practices and prevent many deaths. The researchers have recently
presented the results of this trial in September 2019, at the European
Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, and hopefully, this
revolutionary technique will soon become a successful diagnostic tool
for physicians worldwide.