Potential Blood Test to Detect Cancer

Researchers have recently made great progress in developing a blood test that could potentially detect cancer in humans. They have discovered that by sequencing the abnormal DNA that a tumor releases into the bloodstream, they can detect cancer. The way that they do this is by using either cells shed into the bloodstream by tumors or free-floating tumor DNA in the bloodstream to track the growth and spread of said tumors. Researchers then look for known alterations in cancer genes to distinguish the cancerous DNA from normal DNA.

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Postdoctoral researcher Rebecca Leary and others, also from the John Hopkins University School of Medicine, have recently made an important observation: No matter what type of cancer is infecting an individual, tumor cells almost always have noticeably altered chromosomes such as swapped pieces or extra copies of genes. This discovery means that a test that could detect DNA abnormalities in the bloodstream has a promising possibility of becoming a general test used to detect cancer.

Different colors on the same chromosomes note abnormalities detectable
by the blood test
Image from ScienceNOW

Although this is so far only applicable to advanced stages of cancer, they are hoping that once sequencing costs decrease they will be able to detect early stages of cancer in the bloodstream as well. The test is by no means cheap, with each test costing several thousand dollars just for the sequencing, and the analytic results would take at least a month to be returned. Researcher Victor Velculescu from the John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland notes that, "As sequencing costs continue to drop in the very near future, this could end up being extremely cheap." Daniel Haber of Massachusetts General Hospital works on using circulating tumor cells to detect and monitor cancer said that, "The approach has tremendous promise and, should the sequencing strategy become economical, it could have important implications in early cancer detection."

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I found this article extremely interesting because it is amazing how far along we have come with cancer research in the past few decades-yet it is incredible how much we still have yet to learn. This is a huge step in the right direction and should give generations to come great hope that cancer may become very easily detected and treatable in early stages. The implications of a simple blood test to treat cancer would make this readily available even to people of lower economic status, and this has the potential to save countless numbers of lives in the future.



Article: A Step Towards a Universal Cancer Blood Test
Written by: Jocelyn Kaiser
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/11/a-step-toward-a-universal-cancer.html?ref=hp