He swore. Will a simple blood test soon detect lung cancer?

A promising step forward

Lung cancer is a common cancer with a poor prognosis. It is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Currently, low-dose CT is the standard examination, but early detection rates are still too low. This also leads to numerous false positive results, which are very worrying for the patient. Many studies are currently focused on detecting specific biomarkers of lung cancer in the circulation. Detection remains difficult because biomarkers are very poorly concentrated in the blood.

Identify the most different targets in the blood

Dr. Zohair Selmani and Dr. Alexis Overs, doctors at the University Hospital of Besançon, developed a computer script called “MmethylSCan” (specific methylation of cancer) to analyze publicly available biological databases on different types of cancer. Their algorithm combines liquid biopsies. Data from approximately 400 patients with more than 450,000 potential targets each were analyzed.

The goal is to save only the most discriminating targets. About a hundred have been selected as tumor biomarkers detectable at infinitesimal doses.

Biologically validated biomarkers

This important step was developed using the EPIGENExp platform of the University of Franche-Comté and the University Hospital of Dijon. The test was carried out on 40 blood samples from 20 healthy people and 20 patients. In 95% of cases, no traces of a tumor were found in patients with lung cancer and none in healthy people. The first preliminary results are convincing and confirm the validation of the system.

Towards less invasive precision medicine

This important medical advance can be used to monitor patients and be extended to other types of cancer (colon, pancreas, prostate, ovarian). Researchers want to generalize its use and thus detect the disease earlier. Finally, it is a lung cancer monitoring tool that is minimally invasive for patients through a simple blood test. And a less burdensome and less expensive alternative for the healthcare system.