Although corona virus disease is a major cause of concern worldwide, cancer is a life-threatening disease with a growing number of cases.
Of course, cases are very difficult to treat, but if diagnosed early, it can be treated.
That is why a recent development by Chinese medical experts has raised the expectation that it will be possible to diagnose cancer in an individual many years before the onset of the disease.
The study, published in the medical journal Communications, looked at the development of a blood test that could diagnose different types of cancer four years before symptoms appear.
Experts diagnosed cancer in 95% of people who did not have symptoms, but discovered the disease a long time later.
“We succeeded in detecting a blood test based on DNA methylation in five types of cancer four years before the traditional diagnosis,” the researchers said.
He said that this test basically detects the development of cancer instead of predicting cancer which does not cause symptoms at present or it is not possible to diagnose it in other ways.
Such tests have been dubbed liquid biopsies, and have received more attention in recent years.
The idea of taking a blood test for early diagnosis of cancer is not new, but experts involved in the new research said that their work was good because it proves that the diagnosis of cancer is possible many years ago.
According to the researchers, this new blood test looks for methyl groups in the DNA of certain parts of the blood plasma, which usually cause tumors in the DNA.
The research team said that with this technique, they can inspect even the smallest parts.
A system is then created using machine learning algorithms based on AI technology to determine if the DNA circulating in the blood is the result of a tumor, based on the presence of methyl groups.
To prepare for the test, scientists collected blood samples from different people in China between 2007 and 2014.
Of these, 414 were cancer-free within 5 years of being sampled, while 191 were diagnosed with gastrointestinal, liver, lung, esophageal or colorectal cancer within 4 years after blood samples were collected.
The researchers also collected samples from 223 patients from biobanks who had already been diagnosed with one of the five cancers.
The system was then trained with half the samples and then the blood test was tested on the remaining samples.
The results showed that Pan-Sir had already diagnosed 88% of cancer patients correctly, while 95% of people who did not show symptoms or disease also made an accurate diagnosis, which was confirmed by several. It happened a year later.
Similarly, the test also accurately identified 96% of people who survived the disease.
The research was somewhat limited because very few samples were used, while the research team also expressed concerns about possible adulteration, while the test could not even identify what type of cancer an individual may be diagnosed with in the future. Will be.
However, Dr. Eric Lane of the Towing Cancer Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in the United States, who was part of the research team, welcomed the findings.
He said it was an exciting study that further confirms that methylation-based tests can detect tumor DNA and help diagnose cancer at an early stage.