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Experimental Low-Cost Blood Test Can Detect Multiple Cancers, Researchers Say

Test uses a new ultrasensitive immunoassay to detect a known clinical laboratory diagnostic protein biomarker for many common cancers

Researchers from Mass General Brigham, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University’s Wyss Institute and other institutions around the world have reportedly developed a simple clinical laboratory blood test that can detect a common protein biomarker associated with multiple types of cancer, including colorectal, gastroesophageal, and ovarian cancers.

Best of all, the researchers say the test could provide an inexpensive means of early diagnosis. This assay could also be used to monitor how well patients respond to cancer therapy, according to a news release.

The test, which is still in experimental stages, detects the presence of LINE-1 ORF1p, a protein expressed in many common cancers, as well as high-risk precursors, while having “negligible expression in normal tissues,” the researchers wrote in a paper they published in Cancer Discovery titled, “Ultrasensitive Detection of Circulating LINE-1 ORF1p as a Specific Multicancer Biomarker.”

The protein had previously been identified as a promising biomarker and is readily detectable in tumor tissue, they wrote. However, it is found in extremely low concentrations in blood plasma and is “well below detection limits of conventional clinical laboratory methods,” they noted.

To overcome that obstacle, they employed an ultra-sensitive immunoassay known as a Simoa (Single-Molecule Array), an immunoassay platform for measuring fluid biomarkers.

“We were shocked by how well this test worked in detecting the biomarker’s expression across cancer types,” said lead study author gastroenterologist Martin Taylor, MD, PhD, Instructor in Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in the press release. “It’s created more questions for us to explore and sparked interest among collaborators across many institutions.”

Kathleen Burns, MD, PhD

“We’ve known since the 1980s that transposable elements were active in some cancers, and nearly 10 years ago we reported that ORF1p was a pervasive cancer biomarker, but, until now, we haven’t had the ability to detect it in blood tests,” said pathologist and study co-author Kathleen Burns, MD, PhD (above), Chair of the Department of Pathology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, in a press release. “Having a technology capable of detecting ORF1p in blood opens so many possibilities for clinical applications.” Clinical laboratories may soon have a new blood test to detect multiple types of cancer. (Photo copyright: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.)

Simoa’s Advantages

In their press release, the researchers described ORF1p as “a hallmark of many cancers, particularly p53-deficient epithelial cancers,” a category that includes lung, breast, prostate, uterine, pancreatic, and head and neck cancers in addition to the cancers noted above.

“Pervasive expression of ORF1p in carcinomas, and the lack of expression in normal tissues, makes ORF1p unlike other protein biomarkers which have normal expression levels,” Taylor said in the press release. “This unique biology makes it highly specific.”

Simoa was developed at the laboratory of study co-author David R. Walt, PhD, the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Bioinspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School, and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The Simoa technology “enables 100- to 1,000-fold improvements in sensitivity over conventional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) techniques, thus opening the window to measuring proteins at concentrations that have never been detected before in various biological fluids such as plasma or saliva,” according to the Walt Lab website.

Simoa assays take less than two hours to run and require less than $3 in consumables. They are “simple to perform, scalable, and have clinical-grade coefficients of variation,” the researchers wrote.

Study Results

Using the first generation of the ORF1p Simoa assay, the researchers tested blood samples of patients with a variety of cancers along with 406 individuals, regarded as healthy, who served as controls. The test proved to be most effective among patients with colorectal and ovarian cancer, finding detectable levels of ORF1p in 58% of former and 71% of the latter. Detectable levels were found in patients with advanced-stage as well as early-stage disease, the researchers wrote in Cancer Discovery.

Among the 406 healthy controls, the test found detectable levels of ORF1p in only five. However, the control with the highest detectable levels, regarded as healthy when donating blood, “was six months later found to have prostate cancer and 19 months later found to have lymphoma,” the researchers wrote.

They later reengineered the Simoa assay to increase its sensitivity, resulting in improved detection of the protein in blood samples from patients with colorectal, gastroesophageal, ovarian, uterine, and breast cancers.

The researchers also employed the test on samples from 19 patients with gastroesophageal cancer to gauge its utility for monitoring therapeutic response. Although this was a small sample, they found that among 13 patients who had responded to therapy, “circulating ORF1p dropped to undetectable levels at follow-up sampling.”

“More Work to Be Done”

The Simoa assay has limitations, the researchers acknowledged. It doesn’t identify the location of cancers, and it “isn’t successful in identifying all cancers and their subtypes,” the press release stated, adding that the test will likely be used in conjunction with other early-detection approaches. The researchers also said they want to gauge the test’s accuracy in larger cohorts.

“The test is very specific, but it doesn’t tell us enough information to be used in a vacuum,” Walt said in the news release. “It’s exciting to see the early success of this ultrasensitive assessment tool, but there is more work to be done.”

More studies will be needed to valid these findings. That this promising new multi-cancer immunoassay is based on a clinical laboratory blood sample means its less invasive and less painful for patients. It’s a good example of an assay that takes a proteomic approach looking for protein cancer biomarkers rather than the genetic approach looking for molecular DNA/RNA biomarkers of cancer.

—Stephen Beale

Related Information:

Ultrasensitive Blood Test Detects ‘Pan-Cancer’ Biomarker

New Blood Test Could Offer Earlier Detection of Common Deadly Cancers

Ultrasensitive Detection of Circulating LINE-1 ORF1p as a Specific Multicancer Biomarker

Noninvasive and Multicancer Biomarkers: The Promise of LINE-1 Retrotransposons

LINE-1-ORF1p Is a Promising Biomarker for Early Cancer Detection, But More Research Is Needed

‘Pan-Cancer’ Found in Highly Sensitive Blood Test

Diagnosing Ovarian Cancer Using Perception-based Nanosensors and Machine Learning

Two studies show the accuracy of perception-based systems in detecting disease biomarkers without needing molecular recognition elements, such as antibodies

Researchers from multiple academic and research institutions have collaborated to develop a non-conventional machine learning-based technology for identifying and measuring biomarkers to detect ovarian cancer without the need for molecular identification elements, such as antibodies.

Traditional clinical laboratory methods for detecting biomarkers of specific diseases require a “molecular recognition molecule,” such as an antibody, to match with each disease’s biomarker. However, according to a Lehigh University news release, for ovarian cancer “there’s not a single biomarker—or analyte—that indicates the presence of cancer.

“When multiple analytes need to be measured in a given sample, which can increase the accuracy of a test, more antibodies are required, which increases the cost of the test and the turnaround time,” the news release noted.

The multi-institutional team included scientists from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medicine, the University of Maryland, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, and Lehigh University.

Unveiled in two sequential studies, the new method for detecting ovarian cancer uses machine learning to examine spectral signatures of carbon nanotubes to detect and recognize the disease biomarkers in a very non-conventional fashion.

Daniel Heller, PhD
 
“Carbon nanotubes have interesting electronic properties,” said Daniel Heller, PhD (above), in the Lehigh University news release. “If you shoot light at them, they emit a different color of light, and that light’s color and intensity can change based on what’s sticking to the nanotube. We were able to harness the complexity of so many potential binding interactions by using a range of nanotubes with various wrappings. And that gave us a range of different sensors that could all detect slightly different things, and it turned out they responded differently to different proteins.” This method differs greatly from traditional clinical laboratory methods for identifying disease biomarkers. (Photo copyright: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.)

Perception-based Nanosensor Array for Detecting Disease

The researchers published their findings from the two studies in the journals Science Advances, titled, “A Perception-based Nanosensor Platform to Detect Cancer Biomarkers,” and Nature Biomedical Engineering, titled, “Detection of Ovarian Cancer via the Spectral Fingerprinting of Quantum-Defect-Modified Carbon Nanotubes in Serum by Machine Learning.”

In the Science Advances paper, the researchers described their development of “a perception-based platform based on an optical nanosensor array that leverages machine learning algorithms to detect multiple protein biomarkers in biofluids.

“Perception-based machine learning (ML) platforms, modeled after the complex olfactory system, can isolate individual signals through an array of relatively nonspecific receptors. Each receptor captures certain features, and the overall ensemble response is analyzed by the neural network in our brain, resulting in perception,” the researchers wrote.

“This work demonstrates the potential of perception-based systems for the development of multiplexed sensors of disease biomarkers without the need for specific molecular recognition elements,” the researchers concluded.

In the Nature Biomedical Engineering paper, the researchers described a fined-tuned toolset that could accurately differentiate ovarian cancer biomarkers from biomarkers in individuals who are cancer-free.

“Here we show that a ‘disease fingerprint’—acquired via machine learning from the spectra of near-infrared fluorescence emissions of an array of carbon nanotubes functionalized with quantum defects—detects high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma in serum samples from symptomatic individuals with 87% sensitivity at 98% specificity (compared with 84% sensitivity at 98% specificity for the current best [clinical laboratory] screening test, which uses measurements of cancer antigen 125 and transvaginal ultrasonography,” the researchers wrote.

“We demonstrated that a perception-based nanosensor platform could detect ovarian cancer biomarkers using machine learning,” said Yoona Yang, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate in Lehigh’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and co-first author of the Science Advances article, in the news release.

How Perception-based Machine Learning Platforms Work

According to Yang, perception-based sensing functions like the human brain.

“The system consists of a sensing array that captures a certain feature of the analytes in a specific way, and then the ensemble response from the array is analyzed by the computational perceptive model. It can detect various analytes at once, which makes it much more efficient,” Yang said.

The “array” the researchers are referring to are DNA strands wrapped around single-wall carbon nanotubes (DNA-SWCNTs).

“SWCNTs have unique optical properties and sensitivity that make them valuable as sensor materials. SWCNTS emit near-infrared photoluminescence with distinct narrow emission bands that are exquisitely sensitive to the local environment,” the researchers wrote in Science Advances.

“Carbon nanotubes have interesting electronic properties,” said Daniel Heller, PhD, Head of the Cancer Nanotechnology Laboratory at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine of Cornell University, in the Lehigh University news release.

“If you shoot light at them, they emit a different color of light, and that light’s color and intensity can change based on what’s sticking to the nanotube. We were able to harness the complexity of so many potential binding interactions by using a range of nanotubes with various wrappings. And that gave us a range of different sensors that could all detect slightly different things, and it turned out they responded differently to different proteins,” he added.

The researchers put their technology to practical test in the second study. The wanted to learn if it could differentiate symptomatic patients with high-grade ovarian cancer from cancer-free individuals. 

The research team used 269 serum samples. This time, nanotubes were bound with a specific molecule providing “an extra signal in terms of data and richer data from every nanotube-DNA combination,” said Anand Jagota PhD, Professor, Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Lehigh University, in the news release.

This year, 19,880 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 12,810 will die from the disease, according to American Cancer Society data. While more research and clinical trials are needed, the above studies are compelling and suggest the possibility that one day clinical laboratories may detect ovarian cancer faster and more accurately than with current methods.   

—Donna Marie Pocius

Related Information:

Perception-Based Nanosensor Platform Could Advance Detection of Ovarian Cancer

Perception-Based Nanosensor Platform to Detect Cancer Biomarkers

Detection of Ovarian Cancer via the Spectral Fingerprinting of Quantum-Defect-Modified Carbon Nanotubes in Serum by Machine Learning

Machine Learning Nanosensor Platform Detects Early Cancer Biomarkers

AdventHealth Gives 10,000 Floridians Free Genetic Tests, Sees Genomics as the Future of Precision Medicine

Many other healthcare systems also are partnering with private genetic testing companies to pursue research that drive precision medicine goals

It is certainly unusual when a major health network announces that it will give away free genetic tests to 10,000 of its patients as a way to lay the foundation to expand clinical services involving precision medicine. However, pathologists and clinical laboratory managers should consider this free genetic testing program to be the latest marketplace sign that acceptance of genetic medicine continues to move ahead.

Notably, it is community hospitals that are launching this new program linked to clinical laboratory research that uses genetic tests for specific, treatable conditions. The purpose of such genetic research is to identify patients who would benefit from test results that identify the best therapies for their specific conditions, a core goal of precision medicine.

The health system is AdventHealth of Orlando, Fla., which teamed up with Helix, a personal genomics company in San Mateo, Calif., to offer free DNA sequencing to 10,000 Floridians through its new AdventHealth Genomics and Personalized Health Program. A company news release states this is the “first large-scale DNA study in Florida,” and that it “aims to unlock the secret to a healthier life.”

The “WholeMe” genomic population health study screens people for familial hypercholesterolemia  (FH), a genetic disorder that can lead to high cholesterol and heart attacks in young adults if not identified and treated, according to the news release.

Clinical laboratory leaders will be interested in this initiative, as well other partnerships between healthcare systems and private genetic testing companies aimed at identifying and enrolling patients in research studies for disease treatment protocols and therapies. 

The Future of Precision Medicine

Modern Healthcare reported that data from the WholeMe DNA study, which was funded through donations to the AdventHealth Foundation, also will be used by the healthcare network for research beyond FH, as AdventHealth develops its genomics services. The project’s cost is estimated to reach $2 million.

“Genomics is the future of medicine, and the field is rapidly evolving. As we began our internal discussions about genomics and how to best incorporate it at AdventHealth, we knew research would play a strong role,” Wes Walker MD, Director, Genomics and Personalized Health, and Associate CMIO at AdventHealth, told Becker’s Hospital Review.

“We decided to focus on familial hypercholesterolemia screening initially because it’s a condition that is associated with life-threatening cardiovascular events,” he continued. “FH is treatable once identified and finding those who have the condition can lead to identifying other family members who are subsequently identified who never knew they had the disease.”

The AdventHealth Orlando website states that participants in the WholeMe study receive information stored in a confidential data repository that meets HIPAA security standards. The data covers ancestry and 22 other genetic traits, such as:

  • Asparagus Odor Detection
  • Bitter Taste
  • Caffeine Metabolism
  • Cilantro Taste Aversion
  • Circadian Rhythm
  • Coffee Consumption
  • Delayed Sleep
  • Earwax Type
  • Endurance vs Power
  • Exercise Impact on Weight
  • Eye Color
  • Freckling
  • Hair Curl and Texture
  • Hand Grip Strength
  • Height
  • Lactose Tolerance
  • Sleep Duration
  • Sleep Movement
  • Sleeplessness
  • Sweet Tooth
  • Tan vs. Sunburn
  • Waist Size

Those who test positive for a disease-causing FH variant will be referred by AdventHealth for medical laboratory blood testing, genetic counseling, and a cardiologist visit, reported the Ormond Beach Observer.

One in 250 people have FH, and 90% of them are undiagnosed, according to the FH Foundation, which also noted that children have a 50% chance of inheriting FH from parents with the condition.

AdventHealth plans to expand the free testing beyond central Florida to its 46 other hospitals located in nine states, Modern Healthcare noted.

Other Genetics Data Company/Healthcare Provider Partnerships

In Nevada, Helix partnered with the Renown Health Institute for Health Innovation (IHI) and the Desert Research Institute (DRI) to sequence 30,000 people for FH as part of the state’s Healthy Nevada Project (HNP).

Helix (above) is one of the world’s largest CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited next-generation sequencing labs. The partnership with AdventHealth offered study participants Exome+: a panel-grade medical exome enhanced by more than 300,000 informative non-coding regions; a co-branded ancestry + traits DNA product for all participants; secure storage of genomic data for the lifetime of the participant; infrastructure and data to facilitate research; and in-house clinical and scientific expertise, according to Helix’s website. (Photo copyright: Orlando Sentinel.)

Business Insider noted that Helix has focused on clinical partnerships for about a year and seems to be filling a niche in the genetic testing market.

“Helix is able to sidestep the costs of direct-to-consumer marketing and clinical test development, while still expanding its customer base through predefined hospital networks. And the company is in a prime position to capitalize on providers’ interest in population health management,” Business Insider reported.

Another genomics company, Color of Burlingame, Calif., also has population genomics programs with healthcare networks, including NorthShore University Health System in Ill.; Ochsner Health System in La.; and Jefferson Health in Philadelphia.

Ochsner’s program is the first “fully digital population health program” aimed at including clinical genomics data in primary care in an effort to affect patients’ health, FierceHealthcare reported.

In a statement, Ochsner noted that its innovationOchsner (iO) program screens selected patients for:

  • Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer due to mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes;
  • Lynch syndrome, associated with colorectal and other cancers; and
  • FH.

Color also offers genetic testing and whole genome sequencing services to NorthShore’s DNA10K program, which plans to test 10,000 patients for risk for hereditary cancers and heart diseases, according to news release.

And, Jefferson Health offered Color’s genetic testing to the healthcare system’s 33,000 employees, 10,000 of which signed up to learn their health risks as well as ancestry, a Color blog post states.

Conversely, Dark Daily recently reported on two Boston healthcare systems that started their own preventative gene sequencing clinics. The programs are operated by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

And a Precision Medicine Institute e-briefing reported on Geisinger Health and Sanford Health’s move to offer genetic tests and precision medicine services in primary care clinics.

“Understanding the genome warning signals of every patient will be an essential part of wellness planning and health management,” said Geisinger Chief Executive Officer David Feinberg, MD, when he announced the new initiative at the HLTH (Health) Conference in Las Vegas. “Geisinger patients will be able to work with their family physician to modify their lifestyle and minimize risks that may be revealed,” he explained. “This forecasting will allow us to provide truly anticipatory healthcare instead of the responsive sick care that has long been the industry default across the nation.”

It will be interesting to see how and if genetic tests—free or otherwise—will advance precision medicine goals and population health treatments. It’s important for medical laboratory leaders to be involved in health network agreements with genetic testing companies. And clinical laboratories should be informed whenever private companies share their test results data with patients and primary care providers. 

—Donna Marie Pocius

Related Information:

It May Be Your DNA: First Large-Scale DNA Study in Florida Aims to Unlock the Secret to a Healthier Life

AdventHealth Offers Free DNA Tests to 10,000 Floridians

How AdventHealth Orlando is Building a Future in Genomics

Helix Partners with AdventHealth to Offer 10,000 Genetic Screenings in Florida

AdventHealth to Launch Large Genetic Study for High Cholesterol

Ochsner Health System Teaming Up with Genetic Testing Company Color in Population Genomics

The Healthy Nevada Project: from Recruitment to Real-World Impact

Ochsner Health System to Pilot Genetic Screening Program in Partnership with Color

North Shore and Color Unlock the Power of Genomics in Routine Care

Jefferson Heath and Color Advancing Precision Health Through Clinical Genomics and Richer Data

Two Boston Health Systems Enter the Growing Direct-to-Consumer Gene Sequencing Market by Opening Preventative Genomics Clinics, But Can Patients Afford the Service

Geisinger Health and Sanford Health Ready to Offer Genetic Tests and Precision Medicine Services in Primary Care Clinics

Collaborative Global Study Casts New Light on Breast Cancer’s Genetic Roots; Will Soon Provide Anatomic Pathologists and Clinical Laboratories with New Tools to Diagnose and Treat Cancer

In the same way that BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations helped pathologists identify women with increased breast cancer risks in the late 1990s, this new study isolates an additional 72 mutations medical laboratories may soon use to diagnose breast cancer and assess risk factors

For 20 years genetic scientists, anatomic pathologists, and medical laboratories have employed the BRCA1/BRCA2 genes to identify women at higher risk for breast cancer. And, because pathologists receive a high number of breast biopsies to diagnose, physicians and clinical laboratories already have collaborative experience working with genetic mutations supported by ample published evidence outlining their relationship with cancer.

Now, a global research study is adding 72 more mutations to the list of mutations already known to be associated with breast cancer.

In coming years, physicians and anatomic pathologists can expect to use the knowledge of these 72 genetic mutations when diagnosing breast cancer and possibly other types of cancers in which these mutations may be involved.

New Precision Medicine Tools to Improve Breast Cancer Survival

Combining the efforts of more than 550 researchers across 300 institutions and six continents, the OncoArray Consortium analyzed the DNA of nearly 300,000 blood samples. The analysis included samples of both estrogen receptor (ER-positive and ER-negative) cases.

Taken from a study published in the British Journal of Cancer, the graph above illustrates “proportions of familial risk of breast cancer explained by hereditary variants.” It is expected that anatomic pathologists will eventually incorporate these genetic variants into diagnostic test for breast and other cancers. (Graphic copyright: British Journal of Cancer.)

The results of their research were published in two separate studies: one in the scientific journal Nature and the other in Nature Genetics. The studies outlined 72 newly isolated genetic mutations that might help quantify the risk of a woman developing breast cancer in her lifetime.

Among the 72 mutations, seven genes were specifically associated with ER-negative cases. ER-negative breast cancer often fails to respond to hormone therapy. Thus, this discovery could be crucial to developing and administering precision medicine therapies tailored to specific patients’ physiologies and conditions. Treatments that improve patient outcomes and overall survival rates in ER-negative and ER-positive breast cancers.

Genetics Could Help Clinical Laboratories Wage War on All Cancers

According to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women of all races. It’s the second-leading cause of all cancer deaths among most races and first among Hispanic women.

In the past, it was estimated that 5-10% of breast cancers were inherited through the passing of abnormal genes. However, Lisa Schlager, Vice President of community affairs and public policy for FORCE (Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered), told CNN, “This new information may mean that that estimate is low.” FORCE is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting hereditary breast, ovarian, and related cancers.

Schlager calls upon health systems to “embrace the ability to use genetic information to tailor healthcare by providing affordable access to the needed screening and preventive interventions.” As precision therapy and genetic analysis continue to shape the way patients are treated, medical laboratories will play a significant role in providing the information powering these innovative approaches.

Furthermore, medical laboratories might leverage the same methods used by researchers to assess risk factors and identify genetic mutations and markers associated with other cancers. Douglas Easton, PhD, Director of the Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology within the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, and leader of the OncoArray Consortium investigation, explained to CNN that Illumina’s Infinium OncoArray is not limited to breast cancer, but is designed to work with other cancers, including:

·       colorectal;

·       ovarian; and,

·       prostate cancers.

Identifying Women at Increased Risk for Breast Cancer

Peter Kraft, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a study author, told CNN, “Taken together, these risk variants may identify a small proportion of women who are at three-times increased risk of breast cancer.”

Kraft notes that samples were sourced from women of primarily European ancestry. Further study of other ethnic populations could lead to yet more mutations and indicators for cancers more common outside of the European region.

Research authors also highlight the importance of continued standard screening, such as mammograms. However, they suggest that genetic mutations, such as those found in the OncoArray study, might be used to highlight high-risk individuals and screen sooner, or conduct more in-depth genetic analyses, to catch potential cancer cases earlier and improve outcomes.

“Many women are offered mammogram screening when they are middle-aged,” Georgia Chenevix-Trench, PhD, co-author of the Nature Genetics study and researcher at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Australia, told LabRoots. “But if we know a woman has genetic markers that place her at higher risk of breast cancer, we can recommend more intensive screening at a younger age.”

Anatomic pathologists and clinical laboratories can use these new insights to offer increased options for oncologists and physicians on the front lines of the battle against cancer. While the list of genetic mutations related to cancer is far from complete, each added mutation holds the potential to power a new treatment, improve early detection rates, and improve survival rates of this global killer.

—Jon Stone

Related Information:

Major Study of Genetics of Breast Cancer Provides Clues to Mechanisms Behind the Disease

Breast Cancer Genetics Revealed: 72 New Mutations Discovered in Global Study

Identification of Ten Variants Associated with Risk of Estrogen-Receptor-Negative Breast Cancer

Association Analysis Identifies 65 New Breast Cancer Risk Loci

An Unprecedented Study Has Revealed 72 New Breast Cancer Gene Variants

Study Finds 72 New Genetic Mutations Linked to Breast Cancer

Major Study Identifies 72 New Genetic Risk Factors for Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer: 72 New Gene Mutations Uncovered

 

Clinical Laboratories Could Soon Diagnose 17 Diseases with a Single Breath Analyzer Test from Israel’s Institute of Technology

The Technion breathalyzer would give pathology groups and medical laboratories unprecedented ability to support physicians in diagnosing and treating cancers, chronic diseases, and other illnesses

Readers of Dark Daily know that several pathology research teams in America and the UK are developing breath analyzer tests that can detect everything from lung cancer to early-stage infections. Clinical laboratories will soon have a plethora of breath-related tests from which to choose. Now there’s a new kid on the block. A breathalyzer test that can detect up to 17 distinct cancerous, inflammatory, and neurological diseases!

Assuming the cost per test was at a competitive level to existing technologies, what would give this new diagnostic system appeal to physicians and patients alike is that it would be a non-invasive way to diagnose disease. Only a sample of the patient’s breath would be needed to perform the assays.

Researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology, or Technion, published the results of their study in ACS Nano, a monthly journal of the American Chemical Society devoted to “nanoscience and nanotechnology research at the interfaces of chemistry, biology, materials science, physics, and engineering.” (more…)

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