The tests may be particularly important for cancers that are currently discovered too late with other methods.
Science is one step closer to tracking blood tests for various types of cancer. A study by Deb Schrag of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York), which was presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) annual meeting in Paris, showed a relatively high sensitivity of this blood test to circulating genetic material (ctDNA). in malignant blood cells.
“These results are an important first step towards tests that can detect cancer very early. They showed a good detection rate in people who actually had cancer (sensitivity) and excellent specificity (negative test – did not confirm cancer; note) for people without cancer. For people who tested positive, it took less than two months to confirm the diagnosis and a little longer to rule out cancer (…)”, noted scientist Deb Schrag.
The specificity of a diagnostic testing procedure indicates the likelihood that healthy people who do not suffer from the disease being tested will actually be recognized as healthy on the test.
It is defined as the quotient of true negative test results and the sum of false positive and true negative test results – that is, all test results that were not actually based on a disease.
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Finding genetic material from malignant cells in the blood
The study (“Pathfinder”) included 6,621 individuals aged 50 years and older who had not previously been diagnosed with cancer. The test kit aimed to detect circulating genetic material (ctDNA) in the blood of malignant cells from 50 different tumor diseases. Scientists found a positive test and therefore a suspicion of cancer in 1.4 percent. This suspicion was confirmed in 38% of people tested with a positive blood test after performing other conventional tests, e.g. imaging (CT, MRI scans), endoscopic examinations, etc.
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Few false positive tests
However, the specificity rate was extremely high. Of the 6,290 individuals who did not have cancer, 99.1 percent tested negative for ctDNA from malignant cells. Deb Schrag: “An important finding was that few participants with a false positive test also required repeat invasive tests such as endoscopy or tissue biopsies. This should allay concerns that these tests cause harm by triggering unnecessary additional diagnostic steps in individuals healthy”.
These blood tests can be particularly important in screening for cancer, which is often discovered too late with other methods and for which screening methods do not yet exist in asymptomatic people – for example, pancreatic, small bowel and gastric carcinoma.
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