Cancer researchers have developed a new blood test that could improve diagnosis and treatment for patients. The test is the first to be able to detect not only the presence of cancer but also the spread of the disease around the body, which is often categorised in cancer stages.
Currently, patients who are diagnosed with cancer have to undergo imaging and testing before doctors can tell if it has spread to any other part of the body. A cancer that has spread is called metastatic cancer.
This knowledge then informs treatment, as patients with tumours in a single area are offered a local treatment, like surgery, while those with cancer that has spread would need whole-body treatments like chemotherapy or hormone therapy.
Now, a new blood test has successfully identified metastatic cancer in 94 per cent of the 300 patients sampled.
The test, developed by researchers at University of Oxford, uses a new technique called NMR metabolomics, which identifies the presence of biomarkers in the blood, called metabolites. These are small chemicals that our body naturally produces, but they are also made by cancer cells.
A person with a spreading cancer will have a certain metabolomic profile, one that is different from a patient with localised cancer or is from someone without cancer.
The team used an imaging technique called NMR to identify cancer cells’ “unique metabolomic fingerprints”, said oncologist Dr James Larkin, who worked on the study.
The NMR metabolomics technology could open up a wide range of new avenues for disease detection, not just in cancer but in other conditions too, said Larkin.
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“We are only now starting to understand how metabolites produced by tumours can be used as biomarkers to accurately detect cancer,” he said. “We have already demonstrated that this technology can successfully identify if patients with multiple sclerosis are progressing to the later stages of disease, even before trained clinicians could tell. It is very exciting that the same technology is now showing promise in other diseases, like cancer.”
The team say that their new test will help patients who have symptoms that aren’t specific to cancer of a particular body part. Whereas some symptoms, like a lump, would cause a doctor to immediately test for cancer, there are others that may be missed or go undiagnosed for some time.
They hope that patients presenting these non-specific symptoms, such as fatigue or weight loss, could receive the cancer test as part of a routine blood test.
However, there is still a way to go before the new cancer blood test is being offered by GPs. Next, the team will run a study with a larger group of patients.
“The goal is to produce a test for cancer that any GP can request,” said Dr Fay Probert, lead researcher of the study. “We envisage that metabolomic analysis of the blood will allow accurate, timely and cost-effective triaging of patients with suspected cancer, and could allow better prioritisation of patients based on the additional early information this test provides on their disease.”