Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in the United States reported at the 2018 Digestive Disease Week meeting that they have developed a DNA blood test that can correctly identify 95% of common liver cancer cases.
At present, ultrasound and alpha-fetoprotein detection are used clinically to detect liver cancer. This joint detection is not very sensitive to curable liver cancer. A recent study showed that this combined test can detect 63% of liver cancer cases. These tests are not very sensitive to curable liver cancer, and most people who need to be tested are not easy to obtain this kind of joint test or cannot be tested frequently enough to achieve effective detection.
The researchers used known liver cancer abnormal DNA markers. In the study of 244 patients, most of the blood samples from patients with primary liver cancer had abnormal DNA markers. The abnormal markers can accurately identify 95% of liver cancers. Patients, 93% of them are in a curable stage. These markers are not found in healthy people and patients with cirrhosis.
The researchers pointed out that the exciting thing is that DNA markers can detect more than 90% of patients with curable liver cancer, which is the main advantage of this test and the current test. The next step is to verify these marker blood tests in a larger sample cohort.
The researchers are devoted to exploring the biomarkers of 16 kinds of tumors, aiming to create two major tests, namely, the stool test is used for gastrointestinal tumors, and the blood test is used for other tumors including liver cancer and lung cancer.
