Imagine a world where it is as easy to check for cancer as it is high cholesterol. New research out of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine may lead to just that. […] There is normally some DNA floating around in our blood. It’s referred to as cell free DNA (cfDNA). People with cancer not only have more of this cfDNA, but, some of it is specifically from the tumor. This DNA is called circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). The ctDNA has a different DNA sequence than that of DNA not from the tumor.
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The team from Johns Hopkins developed a new approach to detect the ctDNA from healthy people – when it is in very low amounts – presumably at the earliest stages of cancer in the body.
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It was tested in people who were in an early stage of four different types of cancer: colorectal, breast, lung and ovarian. Using this approach, they examined 58 cancer-related genes. Out of the patients studied that were in the earliest stage of cancer (stage I), the ctDNA was detected in 50% with colorectal, 67% with breast, 45% with lung, and 67% with ovarian cancer. An even higher percentage of people were able to be detected from the pool of people with more advanced cancer.
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