Imagine that a simple blood test is enough to reveal cancer of the prostate, breast or lung. This hypothesis could become reality within five to ten years if we are to believe academics at Stanford medical school in the United States. These researchers are not based on a prophecy but on their latest achievement: the development of a blood test capable of detecting several forms of cancer. This screening tool, called CAPP-Seq (Cancer Personalized Profiling by deep Sequencing, literally “personalized profiling of cancer by deep sequencing”), is establishing itself as the latest instrument for measuring patient DNA. Concretely, in a patient suffering from cancer, this test manages to evaluate in the blood the “quantity of cancer in the organism” as well as to analyze the response of this one to anti-cancer treatments.
This new method has made it possible to “precisely identify half of stage 1 lung cancers and all of the cancers at a more advanced stage”.
A very precise diagnosis
How does this blood test work? In fact, cancer cells are constantly dividing and dying, and in doing so they release DNA into the bloodstream.
These small messages provide valuable information to researchers to better diagnose and monitor the course of the disease. The targeting is such that it is possible to detect one abnormal cell among 10,000 healthy cells. The careful identification of DNA mutations associated with cancer could eventually identify different types of cancerous tumors early in their development.
Scientists hope that this test will be available within ten years.
