Tuesday, March 07, 2017

Novel blood test may detect, locate cancer early

Scientists have developed a new blood test to detect cancer and locate where in the body the tumour is growing, an advance way to eliminate the need for invasive surgical procedures like biopsies.

Cancer blood tests work by screening for DNA released by dying tumour cells and detect traces of tumour DNA in the blood of cancer patients. 

However, these do not indicate where the tumour resides. 
“Knowing the tumour’s location is critical for effective early detection,” said Kun Zhang, professor at the University of California-San Diego in the US.  

When a tumour starts to take over a part of the body, it competes with normal cells for nutrients and space, killing them off in the process.

 As normal cells die, they release their DNA into the bloodstream, and that DNA could be used to identify the affected tissue, the researchers said. 

The new method screens for a particular DNA signature called CpG methylation haplotypes.  

Each tissue in the body can be identified by its unique signature of methylation haplotypes.


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If we integrate both cancer cell and other cells signals we could actually determine the presence or absence of a tumour, and where it is growing, Zhang explained.  

For the study, published in the journal Nature Genetics, the team put together a database of the complete CpG methylation patterns of 10 different normal tissues — liver, intestine, colon, lung, brain, kidney, pancreas, spleen, stomach and blood.  

They also analysed tumour samples and blood samples from cancer patients and looked for signals of the cancer markers and the tissue-specific methylation patterns.   

The test works like a dual authentication process — the combination of both signals above a statistical cutoff — is required to assign a positive match, the researchers noted.

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Monday, March 07, 2016

Blood test may indicate skin cancer relapse

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 Researchers have found that a blood test may be able to sound early warning bells that patients with advanced melanoma skin cancer are suffering from relapse.

"Being able to spot the first signs of relapse, so we can rapidly decide the best treatment strategy, is an important area for research," said lead study author Richard Marais, skin cancer expert at Cancer Research UK, a leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.

"Using our technique we hope that  one day we will be able to spot when a patient's disease is coming back at the earliest point and start treatment against this much sooner, hopefully giving patients more time with their loved ones," Marais noted.


The findings were published in the journal Cancer Discovery.

The researchers studied the DNA shed by tumours into the bloodstream -- called circulating tumour DNA -- in blood samples from seven advanced melanoma patients.

In this early work they found they could see whether a patient was relapsing by tracking levels of circulating tumour DNA.

And they found that new mutations in genes like NRAS and PI3K appeared, possibly causing the relapse by allowing the tumour to become resistant to treatment.

Most melanoma patients respond to treatment at first but their cancer can become resistant within a year.

It is hoped that these approaches will allow doctors to use circulating tumour DNA to tailor treatment for individual patients to get the best result.

Researchers have found that a blood test may be able to sound early warning bells that patients with advanced melanoma skin cancer are suffering from relapse.

"Being able to spot the first signs of relapse, so we can rapidly decide the best treatment strategy, is an important area for research," said lead study author Richard Marais, skin cancer expert at Cancer Research UK, a leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.

"Using our technique we hope that  ..

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