CANCER MARKER TEST IS FAST, CHEAP & EASY!
ANEW highly sensitive blood test can identify several cancers in their earliest stages in as little as two hours by detecting a key protein — and costs just three bucks to produce, researchers say.
“This has groundbreaking potential as an early diagnostic test for lethal cancers,” says Rockefeller University’s Dr. Michael
Rout, part of the team that engineered the screening. Unlike many current cancer tests that are expensive, limited in scope or rely on invasive tissue sampling, this low-cost detector can swiftly pick up the telltale protein LINE-1 ORF1p from just a tiny amount of blood. Cancer biomarker detection is a relatively new and rapidly evolving field. But studies have found high biomarker blood levels indicate the presence of the deadly disease, including the most common and lethal types — esophageal, colon, lung, breast, prostate, ovarian, uterine, pancreatic and head and neck. The development group included scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The team analyzed the plasma of 400 healthy people aged 20 to 90. Only five had detectable ORF1p — which is produced by LINE-1, a virus-like element present in every human cell — and the person with the highest level was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer six months later!
The protein marker could also be used to monitor how patients are responding to cancer treatments, say the researchers.
The study monitored 19 patients with gastroesophageal cancer. In the 13 who responded to treatment, ORF1p measurements fell below the detection limit.
“We were shocked by how well this test worked,” says Massachusetts General’s Dr. Martin Taylor. Rockefeller’s Dr. John LaCava suggests everyone should be tested for baseline amounts of ORF1p, adding, “Then your doctor would just keep an eye out for any spikes in ORF1p levels, which could be indicative of a change in your state of health. A spike would be a cause for a deeper investigation.”