New Blood-Based Biopsy Could Spot Early-Stage Cancers, Study Finds

A new blood-based biopsy may detect 12 types of cancer, a new study finds, including early-stage disease and cancers that shed small amounts of DNA, which are challenging to find. Researchers are testing a multi-cancer early detection platform that captures methylated cell-free DNA, a key biomarker for early cancer detection.

The researchers analyzed samples from 4,000 people, including patients with newly diagnosed cancer and healthy control subjects. The results show that the platform accurately differentiated cancer from non-cancer 94% of the time for all 12 cancer types and stages. Detection rates were also extremely high for early-stage disease, as well as low-shedding cancers like breast, bladder, and prostate.

One author notes that "At this early stage in development, the robust detection of early-stage and low-shedding cancers with this genome-wide methylation enrichment platform is very promising." However, he stresses that more studies will be needed to confirm the results before the blood test is ready for use in a clinical setting.