Findings may lead to new clinical laboratory testing and treatments for Parkinson’s patients
Gut bacteria have repeatedly been proven to perform critical roles in the development of certain diseases. And many clinical laboratory tests use human microbiota as biomarkers.
Now, researchers at Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan have discovered a link between microbes in the gut and the brain. The connection may play a part in the development of Parkinson’s disease, according to a Nagoya University news release.
The researchers found that a reduction in the genes responsible for synthesizing riboflavin (vitamin B2) and biotin (vitamin B7) may increase the likelihood of developing Parkinson’s.
They also determined that the lack of these genes may lessen the integrity of the intestinal barrier that prevents toxins from entering the bloodstream causing the inflammation often seen in Parkinson’s patients.
“Supplementation therapy targeting riboflavin and biotin holds promise as a potential therapeutic avenue for alleviating Parkinson’s symptoms and slowing disease progression,” said lead researcher Hiroshi Nishiwaki, PhD, Division of Neurogenetics, Center for Neurological Diseases and Cancer, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, in a news release. (Photo copyright: Nagoya University.)
Key Deficiencies in Parkinson’s Patients
According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, nearly one million people in the US are living with Parkinson’s and that number is expected to increase to 1.2 million by the year 2030. Approximately 90,000 new cases of Parkinson’s are diagnosed in the US each year, and more than 10 million people are living with the disease worldwide.
To perform their research, the Nagoya University team analyzed stool samples from 94 Parkinson’s patients from Japan, the US, Germany, China, and Taiwan. They also included 73 relatively healthy controls from Japan. They then used shotgun sequencing (a laboratory technique for determining the DNA sequence of an organism’s genome) to gain a better understanding of the microbial community and genetic makeup of each sample.
The scientists discovered a decrease in B2 and B7 vitamins in patients diagnosed with Parkinson’s. B vitamins promote the production and functions of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and polyamines.
“Supplementation of riboflavin and/or biotin is likely to be beneficial in a subset of Parkinson’s disease patients, in which gut dysbiosis plays pivotal roles,” the authors wrote in NPJ-Parkinson’s Disease.
The examination of fecal metabolites in Parkinson’s patients revealed a reduction in both components.
“Deficiencies in polyamines and SCFAs could lead to thinning of the intestinal mucus layer, increasing intestinal permeability, both of which have been observed in Parkinson’s,” said Hiroshi Nishiwaki, PhD, a professor at Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine and a lead researcher for the study, in the news release.
“This higher permeability exposes nerves to toxins, contributing to abnormal aggregation of alpha-synuclein, activating the immune cells in the brain, and leading to long-term inflammation,” he added.
The team surmises that the weakened protective layer in the gut exposes the intestinal nervous system to more of the toxins people experience in everyday life, such as chemicals, pesticides, and herbicides. These types of toxins lead to the overproduction of alpha-synuclein fibrils. These molecules are aggregates of the α-synuclein protein that form into long, thread-like structures which are primarily found in the brains of individuals with neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s.
Alpha-synuclein fibrils amass in dopamine-producing cells in the brain and increase the type of inflammation that leads to the debilitating motor skills and dementia symptoms of Parkinson’s.
Precision Medicine Analysis Suggested
Due to their research, the team proposes that high doses of vitamin B may help reduce the damage of toxins on the gut microbiome, help protect against neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, and aid in the creation of personalized therapy plans for patients.
“We could perform gut microbiota analysis on patients or conduct fecal metabolite analysis,” Nishiwaki noted. “Using these findings, we could identify individuals with specific deficiencies and administer oral riboflavin and biotin supplements to those with decreased levels, potentially creating an effective treatment.”
The results of the Nagoya University study illustrate the importance of a healthy gut microbiome in the prevention of disease. Altering the bacterial level in the gut may enable doctors to stave off the progression of neurodegenerative illnesses like Parkinson’s disease.
Strikes could lead to delays or cancelations of as many as 123,000 clinical laboratory test across the nation’s healthcare system
Once again, New Zealand medical laboratory workers are returning to the picket line. On March 6, APEX, a specialist union representing more than 4,000 allied, scientific, and technical health professionals throughout New Zealand, issued a strike notice to “three corporate laboratory companies—Awanui, Pathlab, and Medlab,” according to an APEX news release.
“Over 850 laboratory scientists and technicians across New Zealand will take rolling strike action over seven days beginning on 22 March, with at least 123,000 patient tests impacted. Over 70% of New Zealand towns and cities including Tauranga, Rotorua, Palmerston North, Gisborne, Wellington and Dunedin will lose access to medical laboratory testing for their public hospital, or primary care system, or both for a minimum of 72 hours,” the news release notes.
“Pathlab staff across Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Taupō will strike from March 24 until March 26, Awanui staff in Wellington and Canterbury will strike from March 25 until March 27, and Medlab workers in the MidCentral region will strike for a full week from March 22 until March 28. Auckland and the West Coast are the only regions where no labs are affected,” The Post reported.
“Those who use and rely on laboratory services need to brace for impact. We estimate that over 123,000 tests normally carried out as part of urgent or routine patient testing will not be performed during the week of strikes,” said Deborah Powell, MBChB, APEX National Secretary, in the news release.
“We are keen to work with the laboratory employers to resolve this dispute,” said Deborah Powell, MBChB (above), APEX National Secretary, in the news release. “Patients, clinicians, and laboratory workers are now stuck between the rock of underfunding and the hard place of corporate ownership of the medical laboratory sector. To avoid these rolling strikes, we need all parties to the dispute to work together to come up with a creative and sensible solution which works for everyone.” Clinical laboratories in the US may want to pay close attention to the struggles of their counterparts in New Zealand. (Photo copyright: New Zealand Doctor.)
Private Lab Ownership versus Public Funding
In February, more than 900 New Zealand medical laboratory workers nationwide walked off the job to protest “poor conditions and a lack of pay parity with the public sector,” according to the Otago Daily Times. Until now, that was the latest labor action in the ongoing struggle.
But those walkouts did not produce the results the union organizers had hoped.
“We didn’t get what we wanted at all,” Pathlab Tauranga senior medical laboratory scientist Steven Clements told NZ Herald. “We feel like there’s a lot of blame being passed between our employer and the government.”
Clements claimed the New Zealand government made its “standard statement” about it not being involved in private laboratory negotiations.
“They actually provide almost all of our funding, so we feel like the government hasn’t particularly listened. We also feel like our employer maybe isn’t really supporting us … so it’s led to another strike,” he said.
“We are in the weird situation where the employers agree with us,” said APEX National Secretary Powell, NZ Herald reported. “Pay parity between public and corporate employed lab scientists and technicians is the only fair, just, and sustainable solution to this dispute. Unfortunately, the lab triopoly are refusing pay parity without further government funding,” she added.
Disruptions in Care
As is the case with any strike, they are disruptive. During the February strikes, NZ Pathology Chairman, Peter Gootjes, DPH, director of the Awanui Group, told the New Zealand Doctor that they were trying to minimize any disruptions. The New Zealand Association of Pathology Practices (NZ Pathology), according to the organization’s website, is the “collective voice of New Zealand’s private sector laboratory providers, representing the views and aspirations of the funded pathology sector.”
“Our laboratories play an essential role in the provision of healthcare services, and we are working closely with the union, hospitals, and health professionals to ensure essential life-preserving services remain available and ongoing disruption to the community can be minimized,” Gootjes told New Zealand Doctor.
“Pathology sits at the heart of modern healthcare,” he continued. “Ensuring New Zealanders have access to quality, reliable, efficient and trusted pathology services is vital to patient care and public health. These services are a fundamental, yet often unseen, component of the clinical pathway for patients.
“We understand the concerns raised by APEX members and recognize the challenges posed by pay discrepancies following the previous government’s pay equity settlements for public sector employees. We are committed to working constructively with government and officials on this matter,” he said.
Pathlab, Health NZ Respond
In separate statements, Pathlab and Health NZ-Te Whatu Ora (New Zealand’s primary publicly funded healthcare system) attempted to address the APEX lab workers’ demands and assure the public.
“We value [APEX workers’] work and have engaged with APEX in good faith, doing everything we can within the funding we receive. … The problem is that private laboratories, including Pathlab, receive the vast majority of their funding through long-run bulk-funded contracts with Health NZ that pre-date the settlement and are inflexible when it comes to unforeseen cost increases, such as this one,” Pathlab’s chief executive Brian Millen stated, adding, “We remain committed to finding a workable solution while continuing to provide the high-quality services our communities rely on,” NZ Herald reported.
Health NZ, which, according to NZ Herald, “was aware Apex members were in collective bargaining … [but] not involved in this as they did not employ the private sector workforce,” sought to ensure that the strikes’ impact on hospitals and community healthcare services would be minimal.
“All our hospitals and emergency departments will remain open, and we are liaising with the private laboratories to ensure patients who require urgent and critical care receive the services they need, including testing carried out at hospitals and in the community,” said Health NZ, adding, “We respect the right of workers to take strike action and any questions about this matter should be directed to the employers or the union.”
Dark Daily has covered these ongoing strikes in many previous ebriefings. Clinical laboratory and pathology professionals in the United States should take note of their New Zealand counterparts’ recent and ongoing struggle for fair pay and safe working environments. America is no stranger to issues like these and our lab workers could find themselves in a similar situation.
Requirement reflects increasing worldwide focus on preventing genetic disorders through clinical laboratory genetic testing
In a significant move, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Health has established a new policy that requires engaged couples to get genetic testing done along with clinical laboratory blood testing before walking down the aisle.
Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is following an established public health policy of testing soon-to-be-married couples for specific disease conditions. Now, however, instead of just infectious diseases, it is testing for specific genetic conditions as well.
This marks a first for Arab nations and also demonstrates a shift in the standard of care for those regions.
“Abu Dhabi continues to set a global standard in proactive healthcare, marking a significant paradigm shift from traditional and reactive healthcare to informed and holistic health planning and decisions,” said Asma Al Mannaei, DrPH, Director of Health Quality and Executive Director of the Research and Innovation Center at Abu Dhabi Department of Health (DOH), in a press release.
Clinical laboratory managers and pathologists in the US will note that the move in Abu Dhabi mirrors a similar trend in this country. A growing number of children’s hospitals are using genetic testing such as rWGS (Rapid Whole Genome Sequencing) as a pro-active screen for newborns where family history indicates the value of such testing.
It appears the use of genetic testing as a way of predicting risk for genetic disorders is growing in popularity across the globe.
“The integration of genetic testing as part of the premarital screening program is a proud milestone for Abu Dhabi. It positions the Emirate at the forefront of leading healthcare destinations globally, harnessing the power of genomics and latest technologies to promote informed decisions,” said Asma Al Mannaei, DrPH (above), executive director of the Research and Innovation Center at Abu Dhabi’s Department of Health, in a press release. “This step aims to prevent the transmission of genetic diseases to children and elevate early intervention through different phases including diagnostic, tailored genetic counselling, and introducing reproductive medicine solutions for couples.” (Photo copyright: Global Medical Tourism Summit.)
Why Screen for Genetic Disorders?
Pre-screening betrothed couples isn’t a new concept. The US previously required blood tests prior to marriage primarily to spot diseases such as Rubella (a.k.a., German Measles). The nationwide program was eliminated in 2019 for a variety of reasons including the fact that “the mandated blood tests worked to discourage marriage while doing little to actually identify people with disease or improve public health,” the Mises Institute noted at the time.
However, things are different in Middle East nations where consanguinity—when a couple shares a blood relative—is a common cultural norm. It’s not unusual in those regions for first cousins to marry and have children, which can lead to genetic complications.
“If a couple are consanguineous (related) their children have a higher chance of being affected by autosomal recessive genetic disorders. These only occur if a child has a mutation (change) in both copies of a particular gene pair,” according to Top Doctors.
This is where Abu Dhabi’s new genetic testing requirement comes in.
Making Informed Decisions for Future Families
Just like in the US, Abu Dhabians have been blood screening couples for infectious diseases for decades. Genetic testing as part of premarital screening was added at the end of 2024, a report from the Abu Dhabi Public Health Center (ADPHC) noted.
Screening is available at 22 primary healthcare centers throughout Abu Dhabi and the Al Dhafra and Al Ain regions.
“The comprehensive genetic testing list includes 570 genes that cover 840+ genetic disorders. It is important because it can help couples assess the risk of having children with genetic disorders and support them in making informed decisions about family planning,” the ADPHC stated in its report.
Dark Daily in the Middle East
It seems inevitable that in time genetic testing for engaged couples would eventually become a requirement.
Abu Dhabi’s DOH partnered with Abu Dhabi Public Health Center (ADPHC) to launch a pilot of the genetic testing program back in 2022. It screened more than 800 couples and found that 86% showing “genetic compatibility.” The other 14% received test results that required them to obtain more advanced family planning and intervention, the ADPHC reported.
As consanguinity is a common practice in many areas of the Middle East, other nations and Emirates may follow Abu Dhabi in requiring couples to undergo genetic testing. In the US, it would be prudent for clinical laboratories to watch growing trends as more couples opt for extra testing to provide best possible outcomes for their future families.
The research also could provide new opportunities for clinical laboratories to be involved in diagnosing patients’ conditions and help guide selection of appropriate radiation therapies.
The protection comes not from D. radiodurans itself, but from a synthetic antioxidant called melatonin-derived protective (MDP) developed by Michael Daly, PhD, a professor in USU School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology who was inspired by chemistry within the microbe, according to the news release.
“It is this ternary complex that is MDP’s superb shield against the effects of radiation,” said Brian Hoffman, PhD, in the press release. Hoffman, a professor of chemistry at NWU, worked with Daly on the research.
The secret, the two scientists discovered, lies in the combination of three components: phosphate and a designed synthetic peptide known as DP1 which are bound to manganese.
“We’ve long known that manganese ions and phosphate together make a strong antioxidant, but discovering and understanding the ‘magic’ potency provided by the addition of the third component is a breakthrough,” said Brian Hoffman, PhD (above), Professor of Molecular Biosciences at Northwestern University. “This study has provided the key to understanding why this combination is such a powerful—and promising—radioprotectant.” Continuing research in this area might give clinical laboratories new opportunities to screen patients for vaccines and radiation treatments. (Photo copyright: Northwestern University.)
Surviving on Mars
The new research built on a 2022 study, also led by Daly and Hoffman, in which the scientists tried to determine how long D. radiodurans and other microorganisms could survive on Mars when dried and frozen. As noted in an earlier NWU press release, the planet “is constantly bombarded by intense galactic cosmic radiation and solar protons.”
They subjected the microbes to the same cold and arid conditions present on Mars and exposed the organisms to varying levels of radiation. The researchers determined that if deeply buried, D. radiodurans could survive for more than 280 million years and withstand 140,000 grays of radiation. “This dose is 28,000 times greater than what would kill a human,” the press release notes.
Using an advanced spectroscopy technique, the researchers measured the levels of manganese antioxidants within the microorganisms. They determined that higher amounts of the antioxidants increased resistance to radiation.
Fabricating MDP
Daly describes MDP as “a simple, cost-effective, nontoxic and highly effective radioprotector,” according to Live Science.
“Ionizing radiation—such as X-rays, gamma rays, solar protons and galactic cosmic radiation—is highly toxic to both bacteria and humans,” Daly, told Live Science, adding, “In bacteria, radiation can cause DNA damage, protein oxidation, and membrane disruption, leading to cell death. In humans, radiation exposure can result in acute radiation syndrome, increased cancer risk, and damage to tissues and organs.”
Manganese is part of a complex within the microbes that removes the free radicals, Live Science explained.
Daly’s team designed a “lab-made version” of this mechanism by combining manganese and phosphate ions with a synthetic peptide that is similar to amino acids within the microbe.
In the new study, the researchers used a technique known as advanced paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy to characterize MDP, revealing the ternary complex as the “active ingredient” that gives it protective powers.
Real-world Applications for MDP
Daly described some potential applications of their discovery.
“Astronauts on deep-space missions are exposed to chronic high-level ionizing radiation, primarily from cosmic rays and solar protons,” he told Live Science, suggesting that MDP “could be administered orally to mitigate these space radiation risks.”
He added that MDP could also be used as a form of prevention against acute radiation syndrome. “There’s also a well-recognized link between radiation resistance and aging,” he said.
The technology could also lead to new radiation-inactivated vaccines, the latest NWU press release notes.
A team of scientists at USU employed MDP to develop an experimental vaccine that could help prevent chlamydia infection, according to a USU press release. The technology enabled researchers to inactivate the bacterium with radiation while protecting the proteins needed to stimulate immune response.
“If you want an effective whole-cell chlamydia vaccine, then you should probably try not to cook, zap, or otherwise damage the surface antigens that it relies on,” said USU researcher and assistant professor in the department of microbiology and immunology George Liechti, PhD, in the press release.
In a study to gauge the vaccine’s potential, researchers vaccinated mice and then exposed them to the mouse pathogen Chlamydia muridarum, which is related to the human Chlamydia trachomatis.
The mice “showed faster infection clearance, lower bacterial levels, and less tissue damage compared to traditional vaccines,” the press release states.
This new understanding of how antioxidants work is opening avenues of research that could lead to vaccines for radiation exposure and treatments for radiation illnesses. Clinical laboratories will play a role in screening patients and helping pathologists determine the most effective treatments.
Diagnostic test incorporates artificial intelligence and could shorten the time clinical laboratories need to determine patients’ risk for antimicrobial resistance
Sepsis continues to be a major killer in hospitals worldwide. Defeating it requires early diagnosis, including antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST), and timely administration of antibiotics. Now, in a pilot study, scientists at Seoul National University in South Korea have developed a new clinical laboratory test that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to pinpoint the condition sooner, enabling faster treatment of the deadly bacterial infection.
Sepsis, also known as septicemia or blood poisoning, is a serious medical condition that occurs when the body overreacts to an infection or injury. This often takes place in hospitals through blood-line infections and exposure to deadly bacteria. The dangerous reaction causes extensive inflammation throughout the body. If not treated early, sepsis can lead to organ failure, tissue damage, and even death.
Research teams around the world are creating new technologies and approaches to slash time to answer from when blood specimen is collected to a report of whether the patient is or is not positive for sepsis. The Seoul National University scientists’ new approach is yet another sign for microbiologists and clinical laboratory managers of the priority test developers are giving to solving the problem of diagnosing sepsis faster than using blood culture methodology, which requires several days of incubation.
“Sepsis strikes over 40 million people worldwide each year, with a mortality rate ranging from 20% to 50%,” said Sunghoon Kwon, PhD (above), professor of electrical and computer engineering at Seoul National University and senior author of the study, in an interview with The Times in the UK. “This high mortality rate leads to over 10 million deaths annually. Thus, accurate and prompt antibiotic prescription is essential for treatment,” he added. Clinical laboratories play a critical role in the testing and diagnosis of sepsis. (Photo copyright: Seoul National University.)
Reducing Time to Diagnosis
Seoul National University’s approach begins with drawing a sample of the patient’s blood. The researchers then attach special peptide molecules to magnetic nanoparticles and add those nanoparticles to the blood sample. The particles bind to the harmful pathogens in the blood.
The harmful bacteria are then collected using magnets. Their DNA is extracted, amplified, and analyzed to establish the type of microbes that are present in the sample.
The pathogens are exposed to antibiotics and an AI algorithm evaluates their growth patterns to forecast what treatments would be most beneficial to the patient. This last step is known as antimicrobial susceptibility testing or AST.
“The principle is simple,” said Sunghoon Kwon, PhD, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Seoul National University and senior author of the study, in a Nature podcast. “We have a magnetic nanoparticle. The surface of the magnetic nanoparticle we coat in a peptide that can capture the bacteria.”
Kwon is the CEO of Quantamatrix, the developer of the test.
The complete process can be performed on one machine and results are available in about 12 hours, which reduces typical AST time by 30 to 40 hours when compared to traditional processes.
“Sepsis progresses very quickly, with the survival rate dropping with each passing hour,” Kwon told The Times UK. “Every minute is crucial.”
Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance
The team assessed the performance of their test on 190 hospital patients who had a suspected sepsis infection. The test achieved a 100% match in the identification of a bacterial species. The test also achieved an efficiency of 96.2% for capturing Escherichia coli (E. coli) and 91.5% for capturing Staphylococcus aureus.
“Treatment assessment and patient outcome for sepsis depend predominantly on the timely administration of appropriate antibiotics,” the authors wrote in Nature.
“However,” they added, “the clinical protocols used to stratify and select patient-specific optimal therapy are extremely slow,” due to existing blood culture procedures that may take two or three days to complete.
“The microbial load in patient blood is extremely low, ranging between 1 and 100 colony-forming units (CFU) ml−1 and is vastly outnumbered by blood cells,” the study authors explained. “Due to this disparity, prior steps—including blood culture (BC) to amplify the number of pathogens followed by pure culture to subculture purified colonies of isolates—have been essential for subsequent pathogen species identification (ID) and AST.”
Further research, studies and regulatory approval are needed before this technique becomes available, but the South Korean scientists believe it could be ready for use within two to three years. They also state their test can help prevent antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and bolster the strength of existing antibiotics.
Previous Studies
The Seoul National University study is just the latest effort by scientists to develop faster methods for clinical laboratory testing and diagnosing of sepsis.
In September, Dark Daily reported on a similar test that uses digital imaging and AI to determine sepsis risk for emergency room patients.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least 1.7 million adults develop sepsis annually in the US, and that at least 350,000 die as a result of the condition. CDC also lists sepsis as one of the main reasons people are readmitted to hospitals.
Microbiologists and clinical laboratory managers should be aware that scientists are prioritizing the creation of new testing methods for faster detection of sepsis. Various research teams around the world are devising technologies and approaches to reduce the time needed to diagnose sepsis to improve patient outcomes and save lives.
These advances in the battle against cancer could lead to new clinical laboratory screening tests and other diagnostics for early detection of the disease
As Dark Daily reported in part one of this story, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has identified 12 new breakthroughs in the fight against cancer that will be of interest to pathologists and clinical laboratory managers.
As we noted in part one, the WEF originally announced these breakthroughs in an article first published in May 2022 and then updated in October 2024. According to the WEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified cancer as a “leading cause of death globally” that “kills around 10 million people a year.”
The WEF is a non-profit organization base in Switzerland that, according to its website, “engages political, business, academic, civil society and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.”
Monday’s ebrief focused on four advances identified by WEF that should be of particular interest to clinical laboratory leaders. Here are the others.
Personalized Cancer Vaccines in England
The National Health Service (NHS) in England, in collaboration with the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, has launched a program to facilitate development of personalized cancer vaccines. The NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad will seek to match cancer patients with clinical trials for the vaccines. The Launch Pad will be based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology, which is the same technology used in many COVID-19 vaccines.
The BBC reported that these cancer vaccines are treatments, not a form of prevention. BioNTech receives a sample of a patient’s tumor and then formulates a vaccine that exposes the cancer cells to the patient’s immune system. Each vaccine is tailored for the specific mutations in the patient’s tumor.
“I think this is a new era. The science behind this makes sense,” medical oncologist Victoria Kunene, MBChB, MRCP, MSc (above), trial principal investigator from Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) involved in an NHS program to develop personalized cancer vaccines, told the BBC. “My hope is this will become the standard of care. It makes sense that we can have something that can help patients reduce their risk of cancer recurrence.” These clinical trials could lead to new clinical laboratory screening tests for cancer vaccines. (Photo copyright: Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.)
Seven-Minute Cancer Treatment Injection
NHS England has also begun treating eligible cancer patients with under-the-skin injections of atezolizumab, an immunotherapy marketed under the brand name Tecentriq, Reuters reported. The drug is usually delivered intravenously, a procedure that can take 30 to 60 minutes. Injecting the drug takes just seven minutes, Reuters noted, saving time for patients and cancer teams.
The drug is designed to stimulate the patient’s immune system to attack cancer cells, including breast, lung, liver, and bladder cancers.
AI Advances in India
One WEF component—the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR)—aims to harness emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality. In India, the organization says the Center is seeking to accelerate use of AI-based risk profiling to “help screen for common cancers like breast cancer, leading to early diagnosis.”
Researchers are also exploring the use of AI to “analyze X-rays to identify cancers in places where imaging experts might not be available.”
Using AI to Assess Lung Cancer Risk
Early-stage lung cancer is “notoriously hard to detect,” WEF observed. To help meet this challenge, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed an AI model known as Sybil that analyzes low-dose computed tomography scans to predict a patient’s risk of getting the disease within the next six years. It does so without a radiologist’s intervention, according to a press release.
Using Genomics to Identify Cancer-Causing Mutations
In what has been described as the “largest study of whole genome sequencing data,” researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK announced they have discovered a “treasure trove” of information about possible causes of cancer.
Using data from England’s 100,000 Genomes Project, the researchers analyzed the whole genome sequences of 12,000 NHS cancer patients.
This allowed them “to detect patterns in the DNA of cancer, known as ‘mutational signatures,’ that provide clues about whether a patient has had a past exposure to environmental causes of cancer such as smoking or UV light, or has internal, cellular malfunctions,” according to a press release.
The researchers also identified 58 new mutational signatures, “suggesting that there are additional causes of cancer that we don’t yet fully understand,” the press release states.
The study appeared in April 2022 in the journal Science.
Validation of CAR-T-Cell Therapy
CAR-T-cell therapy “involves removing and genetically altering immune cells, called T cells, from cancer patients,” WEF explained. “The altered cells then produce proteins called chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), which can recognize and destroy cancer cells.”
The therapy appeared to receive validation in 2022 when researchers at the University of Pennsylvania published an article in the journal Nature noting that two early recipients of the treatment were still in remission after 12 years.
However, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in 2023 that it was investigating reports of T-cell malignancies, including lymphoma, in patients who had received the treatment.
WEF observed that “the jury is still out as to whether the therapy is to blame but, as a precaution, the drug packaging now carries a warning.”
Breast Cancer Drug Repurposed for Prevention
England’s NHS announced in 2023 that anastrozole, a breast cancer drug, will be available to post-menopausal women to help reduce their risk of developing the disease.
“Around 289,000 women at moderate or high risk of breast cancer could be eligible for the drug, and while not all will choose to take it, it is estimated that if 25% do, around 2,000 cases of breast cancer could potentially be prevented in England, while saving the NHS around £15 million in treatment costs,” the NHS stated.
The tablet, which is off patent, has been used for many years to treat breast cancer, the NHS added. Anastrozole blocks the body’s production of the enzyme aromatase, reducing levels of the hormone estrogen.
Big Advance in Treating Cervical Cancer
In October 2024, researchers announced results from a large clinical trial demonstrating that a new approach to treating cervical cancer—one that uses currently available therapies—can reduce the risk of death by 40% and the risk of relapsing by 36%.
“This is the biggest improvement in outcome in this disease in over 20 years,” said Mary McCormack, PhD, clinical oncologist at the University College London and lead investigator in the trial.
The scientists published their findings in The Lancet.
Pathologists and clinical lab managers will want to keep track of these 12 breakthrough advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer highlighted by the WEF. They will likely lead to new screening tests for the disease and could save many lives.
