World-first blood test developed to detect eight common cancers early

A WORLD-first blood test has been developed that can detect the presence of up to eight common cancers long before symptoms appear and spread, with generous Victorians playing a key role in the breakthrough.

A WORLD-first blood test that can detect the presence of up to eight common cancers long before symptoms appear and they spread has been developed.

It is a lifesaving discovery researchers say promises to revolutionise cancer treatment.

And the generosity of Victorians has been key to this US-led breakthrough, with the new test based upon donations of tumour biopsies and blood samples from about 500 cancer patients and healthy volunteers at Western Health.

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Early detection is key to saving lives after a cancer diagnosis, with treatments less effective once the tumour has spread elsewhere in the body.

But current screening tests are not ideal, and they only search for one cancer type at a time. Some have low participation rates, like the 35 per cent of people who take-up the bowel cancer home testing kit, while other tests can be invasive such as colonoscopies or biopsies.

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research’s Professor Peter Gibbs, who alongside colleague Associate Professor Jeanne Tie were the only Australians who contributed to the US-led project, said new targets for early diagnoses had been focusing on “circulating tumour DNA”, the proteins and genetic material shed by dying cancer cells into the blood stream.

This new CancerSEEK test, developed by John Hopkins University, detects the unique patterns of this ctDNA in cancers of the breast, ovary, stomach, liver, lung, bowel, pancreas and oesophagus.

This “liquid biopsy” was tested in 1005 people with non-metastic cancers, and it could positively detect cancer in an average of 70 per cent of people with one of these eight cancers, with a false-positive result of less than 1 per cent.

The findings were published in the journal Science.

“The concern in the past has been false positives, whereas now the test is very, very precise,” Prof Gibbs said. “One in 100 people in the normal population will have a positive blood test. It’s very sensitive.”

Prof Gibbs said clinical trials had now started in the US, which would run over the next 4-5 years, to gather the conclusive data that this blood test in people aged 50-60 was a reliable diagnostic in the real-world, before it would be offered in clinics around the world.

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But given the emergence of online genetic testing, he said the blood test would most likely be available sooner before trials had finished.

“The overarching aim is to develop a screening test for normal, fit, standard-risk people,” Prof Gibbs said.

“Maybe from age 50, you have this as annual test alongside cholesterol or blood sugar tests at your GP.

“I’m pretty confident it will revolutionise cancer diagnosis and cancer screening, but there are some steps we need to take first.”

Horse breeder Peter Liston, 60, had thrown bowel cancer home testing kits away twice during busy on the stud farm before completing the kit last year.

“I was playing with my granddaughter and I thought; this is better fun than being a parent, I should check my health to see that I’m going to enjoy their years ahead,” Mr Liston said.

He was diagnosed with early stage bowel cancer last October, and credits the early detection for helping him avoid chemotherapy and be around to welcome his third grandchildren.

“I’ve just got back from the Magic Millions viewing sale, and everyone I talk to up there half the people are coming back to have colonoscopies now after I talked to them,” he said.

“Early detection is going to save millions and millions of lives.”

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