[The Epoch Times, July 30, 2022](The Epoch Times reporter Shaowei Li compiled and reported) A new technology invented by a team of researchers can detect cancer years before symptoms appear in a patient’s body, using only a blood test. This will greatly improve the anti-cancer effect of a large number of cancer patients.
The technique detects the presence of cancer by detecting a specific protein produced by the cancer gene KRAS and shed into the bloodstream. KRAS is one of the most common genetic variants and is found in many types of cancer, including lung, bowel and pancreatic cancers.
The earlier cancer is detected, the more treatment options patients have, and the better the outcome. The researchers say the method is applicable to a variety of cancers, making it a “holy grail” breakthrough in cancer detection.
“The sooner a patient’s cancer is detected, the better the chance of it being treated and surviving,” said Daniel Kim of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who led the study. Hundreds of thousands of people die from cancer every year around the world. There is an urgent need to develop highly sensitive tests that can diagnose cancer before it spreads to other organs.”
KRAS is a gene that controls RNA. RNA is a compound molecule that transcribes genetic information when a cell replicates itself. The researchers found that by sequencing and mapping blood, they could detect other signaling molecules that are erroneously activated by the cancer’s mutated genes, thereby detecting the presence of cancer.
Daniel King said that the traditional cancer detection method requires surgical extraction of tumor tissue for detection, but the new method only needs to complete the detection by “liquid biopsy”, which is an effective tool for detecting early-stage cancer.
The traditional detection method is that the patient feels a strange lump in the body part, or finds that the body is unwell before inquiring and testing. Daniel King said that cancer cells spread DNA information in the blood long before the tumor appeared or the patient’s body showed any symptoms.
“We are in an interdisciplinary collaborative research environment that inspires us to think about RNA and cancer in new ways,” said co-investigator PhD student Roman Reggiardo.
As a next step, the researchers plan to develop a method to detect early-stage lung cancer, and then expand it to a technique capable of detecting multiple types of cancer. This technology will provide a simple, uniform screening method for people at high risk, such as the elderly and families with cancer genes, to detect problems at an early stage of the disease.
“Now that we know the RNA signaling signatures of early-stage cancers, this helps us develop early-stage cancer detection methods, which hopefully will save many lives in the future,” Daniel King said.
The study was published July 19 in the journal Cell Reports. ◇
Responsible editor: Sun Yun#
