![]() Scientists have long known that both healthy and cancerous cells shed pieces of their DNA into the bloodstream. Study co-leader Victor Velculescu, M.D., Ph.D., of Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and his colleagues are planning follow-up studies of people at high-risk of liver cancer to see if the approach can catch early-stage disease. The NCI-funded study was published March 1 in Cancer Discovery.Ī caveat is the relatively small number of people with liver cancer in the study, Christian Rolfo, M.D., Ph.D., of Tisch Cancer Institute, and Alessandro Russo, M.D., Ph.D., of Papardo Hospital in Messina, Italy, pointed out in a commentary on the study.Īlthough the results seem promising, the next-and very important-step is to see how the blood test performs in a larger group of people who haven’t yet been diagnosed with liver cancer, noted Tim Greten, M.D., a liver cancer expert in NCI’s Center for Cancer Research, who wasn’t involved in the study. They also validated the accuracy of the test using blood samples from another large group of people. ![]() When applied to blood samples from hundreds of people-including some known to have liver cancer-the test accurately identified those with liver cancer, including early-stage disease. In the new study, the researchers used machine learning to analyze fragmentomics data and find differences between people with and without liver cancer. The new blood test could potentially address those issues, said study co-leader Amy Kim, Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. But current tests for liver cancer don’t work very well, aren’t readily available to all who need them, and are expensive. But if it’s found after the cancer has spread, that number drops below 20%.įor that reason, people who have a high risk of liver cancer-such as those with cirrhosis or chronic hepatitis B virus infection-are advised to get regularly monitored for the disease. When the disease is caught early, upwards of 70% of people survive more than 5 years. Liver cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Unlike most other blood tests in development for cancer detection, this one uses a new type of technology, called fragmentomics, to analyze bits of DNA in the blood. ![]() Researchers have developed a blood test that, in a preliminary study, accurately detected liver cancer, including in people with early stages of the disease. ![]()
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