Discoveries
Research may lead to blood test for an array of cancers
Imagine a simple blood test that can determine whether an individual has cancer and, if so, what kind. Such a test may one day become a reality, thanks in part to research by Dana-Farber scientists.
Arthur Pardee, PhD
In a recent study, investigators led by Arthur Pardee, PhD, found that certain genes are more active — or highly "expressed" — in the blood of breast cancer patients than of women without cancer. Screening tests for such genetic markers could enable doctors to detect the presence of cancer in its earliest stages when it can be most successfully treated and generally requires milder forms of therapy.
In the study, researchers collected blood samples from 48 women, 26 of whom had breast cancer and 22 of whom did not. Using standard laboratory techniques, they identified a dozen genes that were much more highly expressed in the breast cancer group. The expression levels of these genes were elevated in 77 percent of the untreated cancer patients — a success rate comparable to that of mammography for detecting breast lumps.
"While there are early-detection tests for specific forms of cancer, such as the PSA test for prostate cancer and the Pap smear for cervical cancer, there is no test for a general indication of cancer," says Pardee. "Our findings suggest that a blood test based on genetic markers could be both practical and relatively simple to perform."
The hope is that such tests might detect solid tumors before they produce symptoms. Tumors of the colon and pancreas, for example, can become large before an individual notices problems — when they can be difficult to treat. "A tumor the size of a pea can have a billion cells in it," Pardee remarks. "Our goal is to catch tumors when they have only a few cells."
The study appeared in the Feb. 27 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
