Could we soon be able to detect cancer in 10 minutes?

In 2016, Illumina, DNA sequency company, created Silicon Valley-based spin-off company backed by more than $1.5bn in funding, including money from Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, found how to detect multiple types of cancer before symptoms, via a single, simple blood test. The test looks at cell-free plasma to find fragments of so-called circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) or liquid biopsy sloughed off by cancer cells.

Detecting cancer sooner – before symptoms – means you can intervene earlier, and people are less likely to die. While doctors can screen for breast, colon and lung cancer, most varieties of the disease can only be detected after symptoms appear. And though it is far from the only approach, the beauty of blood test is that it is minimally invasive to collect. “A relatively simple blood-based test that can screen for evidence of cancer… and it might improve or even replace some screening programmes over time.

To date, there is one company offering a blood test based on ctDNA for early cancer detection: Epigenomics began offering its test for colon cancer in 2016 based on detecting biochemical modification of a single gene.

But the dream being imagined byIllumina and others is an inexpensive test, perhaps no more than $500, which could conceivably be given annually to those over a certain age, with a high chance of detecting many cancers at once with high accuracy. Best detection rates, based on a prototype test for detecting epigenetic changes, ranged from 80% down to 47% for nine cancers (respectively ovarian, liver, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, pancreatic, colorectal, oesophageal, head and neck and lung). Breast cancer ranged from 56% to 11% depending on the type.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/feb/24/the-10-minute-test-for-cancer-pioneering-methods-blood-test-detection-tumours-lung-breast-colorectal