Cancer is a disease that affects millions of people across the globe, and new diagnoses are being made every single day. Although we’re getting better at treating cancer, there is still no quick cure and detection of it has been problematic in the past. However, that may all be about to change with thanks to a new technique that’s been developed by researchers that claim to be able to detect and monitor cancer through the use of a simple blood test.
Current cancer detection methods are often invasive and uncomfortable. Imagine if that could all be taken away, and results (good or bad) could be given to the patient in a more dignified manner. Well, that’s exactly what W. Andy Tao, professor of biochemistry and member of the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research and colleagues are looking to do. As part of their research efforts the team successfully identified a number of proteins in blood plasma that indicates whether or not a person has cancer.
Samples were taken from breast cancer patients for the study, but Tao’s confident it could work on many other types of cancer or diseases too. The team found that nearly 2,400 phosphoproteins were present in one blood sample and 144 of these were found to be significantly elevated in cancer patients. “There are so many types of cancer, even multiple forms for different types of cancer, that finding biomarkers has been discouraging. This is a breakthrough, showing the feasibility of using phosphoproteins in blood for detecting and monitoring diseases”, said Tao.
Centrifuges were used during the research in order to separate the plasma from red blood cells, and high and ultra high centrifuges were used to separate the microvesicles and exosomes then. Tao advises, “Extracellular vesicles, which include exosomes and microvesicles, are membrane-encapsulated. They are stable, which is important. The samples we used were five years old, and we were still able to identify phosphoproteins, suggesting this is a viable method for identifying disease biomarkers.”
By replacing current cancer detection methods with simple blood tests, patients would be spared some of the invasive procedures that are used today including scopes and biopsies. Monitoring would also be far easier, less time-consuming, less costly, and we would see much better results. At the moment patients simply have to wait and see if cancer comes back after treatment – there is no way in which to monitor it. But, with the introduction of these blood tests, a doctor could regularly test cancer patient’s blood to see if there are any signs of the disease returning.
Timothy Ratliffe is director of the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research, and he advised that “The vesicles and exosomes are present and released by all cancers, so it could be that there are general patterns for cancer tissues, but it’s more likely that Andy will develop patterns associated with different cancers. It’s really exciting.” he then went on to say that, “Early detection of cancer is key and has been shown to reduce the death rate associated with the disease clearly.” Tao’s company, Tymora Analytical is now looking to develop technology that allows blood samples to be loaded onto cartridges where phosphoproteins can be analyzed without the need to use any impractical centrifuges.
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