This appeared last week!
Blood protein test could spot cancer seven years earlier
By Poppy Koronka
The Times
Updated 1:20PM May 16, 2024, First published at 7:30AM May 16, 2024
Scientists have discovered proteins in the blood that could indicate that cancer is developing up to seven years before diagnosis.
Researchers in two studies funded by Cancer Research UK identified 618 proteins linked to 19 types of cancer - including 107 proteins in blood collected seven years before the disease was found.
The scientists, from Oxford Population Health, suggest that these proteins may be involved in the earlier stages of cancer and could be used to detect it much earlier.
Dr Keren Papier, senior nutritional epidemiologist at Oxford Population Health and joint first author of the first study, said: “To save more lives from cancer, we need to better understand what happens at the earliest stages of the disease.
“Data from thousands of people with cancer has revealed really exciting insights into how the proteins in our blood can affect our risk of cancer. Now we need to study these proteins in depth to see which ones could be reliably used for prevention.”
The first paper, published on Wednesday in Nature Communications, used blood samples from the UK Biobank from more than 44,000 people - including 4,900 who later had a cancer diagnosis.
Using a technique called proteomics, the team studied nearly 1,500 proteins in each blood sample and analysed which were present in those who went on to get cancer.
They found 107 proteins that were present seven years before an official diagnosis and 182 proteins present three years before diagnosis. In the second study, published at the end of April in the same journal, scientists analysed genetic data from more than 300,000 cancer cases to understand which proteins could be linked to cancer development.
They found 40 blood proteins that were thought to influence someone’s risk of getting nine different types of cancer.
While these findings may eventually be used to help identify and treat cancers early, the team stressed that further research was needed to understand the exact roles these proteins play in cancer development, and which proteins may be the most reliable indicators to test for.
Joshua Atkins, senior genomic epidemiologist at Oxford Population Health and joint first author of the first study, said: “The genes we are born with, and the proteins made from them, are hugely influential in how cancer starts and grows.
“Thanks to the thousands of people who gave blood samples to UK BioBank, we are building a much more comprehensive picture of how genes influence cancer development over many years.”
Dr Iain Foulkes, the executive director of research and innovation at Cancer Research UK, said: “Preventing cancer means looking out for the earliest warning signs of the disease. That means intensive, painstaking research to find the molecular signals we should pay closest attention to.
“Discoveries from this research are the crucial first step towards offering preventative therapies which is the ultimate route for giving people longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.”
Here is the link:
That tech, if it works as promised, would be a great screening test!
Lets hope it happens soon.
David.
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