A blood test could soon detect colorectal and pancreatic cancer

SCIENTISTS in Israel are working on developing a blood test that can detect pancreatic and colorectal cancer. Although still in the testing phase, their method is reported to be 92% accurate. It could ultimately be adapted to detect other types of cancer, or even other diseases.

A small drop of blood could one day alert people to the potential presence of cancer. That's the promise of a team of researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Their findings are published in the journal, Nature Biotechnology.

Once the sample is collected, the researchers subject it to a single-molecule imaging process developed by Dr. Efrat Shema, the project's lead researcher. This method allows for epigenetic mapping, using a fluorescent microscope. The researchers are then able to visualize epigenetic markings on nucleosomes, pieces of DNA wrapped around protein "spools." According to Dr. Efrat Shema, the millions of nucleosomes in the blood can be analyzed to detect cancer.

To conduct their research, the specialists compared these DNA extracts from 30 healthy people with those from a group of 60 patients with different stages of colorectal cancer. They then combined their results with artificial intelligence algorithms.

"Our algorithm could tell the difference between the healthy and the patient groups at a record level of certainty for studies of this type -- with 92% precision," said Dr. Efrat Shema in a news release shared by the Weizmann Institute of Science.

This method could simplify screening for colorectal cancer -- which is currently detectable by colonoscopy, an invasive test that can be daunting for patients -- as well as for pancreatic cancer, for which no diagnostic test exists.

While this method has yet to be validated through clinical trials, the specialists hope that this approach will one day make it possible to diagnose various forms of cancer, as well as other diseases that leave markers in the blood, such as cardiac or autoimmune diseases.