Could a Blood Test Spot Early Stage Colon Cancer?

A simple, reasonably-priced blood take a look at to discover colon most cancers, even in its early stages, appears tremendously powerful and accurate, new research suggests.

The test detects so-called “circulating tumor cells” (CTCs). Researchers examined it on 620 human beings in Taiwan who had been scheduled for a routine colonoscopy at a nearby hospital.

By evaluating the blood check effects with the colonoscopy results, the examine team located that the blood take a look at identified colon most cancers in 87 percentage of cases, ranging from degree I to level IV most cancers. The blood check also was capable of come across 77 percentage of pre-cancerous lesions indicating early stage disease.

The researchers described the take a look at as relatively accurate, noting that it successfully diagnosed most cancers 84 to 88 percent of the time. Less than 3 percentage of the time did it produce a “false wonderful” result, which mistakenly shows the presence of cancer while there may be none.

“Because the test can without problems be made to be had for under $150, it could potentially be offered at once to consumers and ordered by physicians, with colonoscopy being the confirmatory diagnostic,” stated take a look at writer Dr. Ashish Nimgaonkar.

The check isn’t always yet available inside the United States. If and while it does come to market, he said, it probably would now not replace colonoscopy as the gold widespread for screening. Rather, it maximum probable might supplant the preliminary stool-based totally assessments that humans regularly are reluctant to use, Nimgaonkar stated.

“This take a look at will be an option for such individuals, boosting compliance” as it has a “higher sensitivity” than the stool-based totally screening options now available, he stated.

Nimgaonkar is a gastroenterologist and clinical director of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design, in Baltimore. He and his colleagues are scheduled to give their findings Jan. 20 in San Francisco on the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Experts note that studies offered at meetings must be considered preliminary because it has now not been subjected to the rigorous scrutiny given to analyze posted in medical journals.

Of the 620 humans, all older than 20, included inside the have a look at, 438 have been discovered to have either pre-cancerous growths, called polyps, or colorectal cancer starting from early to late-level in improvement.

For the blood test, the researchers used approximately a half-teaspoon of each participant’s blood. Earlier studies had indicated that the take a look at ought to detect very small quantities of CTCs — as low as one CTC in step with billion blood cells — with that length blood sample.

The researchers calculated that the blood check’s accuracy had a “specificity value” of extra than 97 percentage — meaning that any result indicating the presence of most cancers or pre-most cancers lesions need to be considered very reliable.

Still, Nimgaonkar burdened that the blood take a look at is estimated as another device in the screening arsenal as opposed to a alternative for colonoscopies.

“Just like stool tests, this take a look at would not replace diagnostic colonoscopies,” he stated. Those “would nonetheless be the confirmatory diagnostic for wonderful patients and might be wished for tumor or polyp biopsy and removal and exam if someone has a wonderful CTC check.”

Nimgaonkar said that planning is underway to launch the check inside the United States, and he expects it to become to be had someday this year.

Dr. Andrew Chan offered a greater tempered take on the test’s potential. He’s a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

“These early results appear promising, but the sensitivity of the test is nonetheless now not optimal. The variety of patients in the take a look at is also exceedingly small,” Chan stated.

“In the long-term, there is the opportunity that this sort of liquid biopsy technique might be used for screening,” he said. “However, I think it’ll require the development of more sensitive techniques tested in larger populations of sufferers before it’ll be a plausible opportunity to present day screening approaches.”

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