A new blood test has detected 18 types of cancer in its early stages

Science is A major achievement in the search for a cure for cancer There are many studies that provide news periodically About pilot tests being conducted around the world. Shn of search lines It is a blood test that seeks to detect different types of cancer in its early stagesqualifying them he Holy Grail for every To be able to detect tumors at an early stage and so onOr start treatment before the disease spreads throughout the body. One of these recent studies is the one published by the journal BMJ Oncologybased on a new blood test that is currently in the experimental phase, but has produced results Promising in the tests conductedHe was able to detect 18 solid tumors of different organs. This test Based on the protein (group of proteins) of blood plasma. Cancer is to blame 1 in 6 deaths worldwide About 60% of these deaths are due to cancers for which effective screening tests are not available.

A starting point for hope

Testing continues It is very far from being trueBut it is the starting point that gives Best wishes to the researchers. Scientists who are part of the staff American biotechnology company Novelnaargues that this result “Shows promising performance compared to other technologies” In addition, they consider that it “could be a starting point for the development of a new generation of screening tests for early detection of cancer.” Current screening tests have major drawbacks, such as these They are invasive, have high cost, and low levels of accuracy, sensitivity and specificity To detect the disease in its early stages. But this new test demonstrates the potential benefit of testing based on blood plasma proteins For early detection of 18 solid tumors in various organsAccording to its promoters.

The Novelna team claims to have discovered this “A limited set of plasma proteins can differentiate between cancer samples.” who are not contaminated with the disease, “And even distinguish between different types of cancer with great accuracy.”. In addition, the study provides evidence that protein markers indicate cancer It may be gender specific. These results pave the way for “The test is cost-effective, highly accurate and can be applied population-wide.” Reviews the team that developed this study.

Plasma for 440 people

The researchers collected Plasma samples from 440 people diagnosed with 18 different types of cancer Before undergoing treatment and from 44 healthy people He evaluated more than 3,000 proteins associated with chemical pathways in cancer In each sample using a technique that uses antibodies and a statistical algorithm in a two-step process. The first step allowed the biological detection of any cancer, While with the second The tissue of origin and cancer subtypes were identifiedFor example, small and non-small cell lung cancers. They achieved Identify a set of 10 specific proteins of each genus and which were differentially expressed between plasma samples from cancer patients and healthy individuals.

And these scientists specifically It identified 93% of stage 1 cancers in men and 84% of stage 1 cancers in women, with a specificity of 99% and a sensitivity of 90% in men and a specificity of 99% in women. A panel of 150 proteins was able to identify the tissue of origin of most cancers in more than 80% of cases, in both men and women.

Validation with larger populations is needed

But researchers admit this “Further validation in broader populations is needed To prove the reliability of their findings. “However, these findings provide a foundation for future research and highlight the potential of proteomic analysis to revolutionize cancer diagnosis in the population domain.”

Regarding these findings, Paul Pharaoh, professor of cancer epidemiology in the Department of Computational Biomedicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, points out that It is still “too early to know whether this test will be useful.” for early detection of cancer,” although he does not downplay the importance of the results by referring in his statements to Scientific Media Center (SMC) What “They show some promise.”