Cancer News
Blood test detects cancers with no screening programmes
Positive results from large study promise major improvement in early cancer detection
Anew blood-based test is able to pick up an increased number of cancers , with many being in the early stage and undetectable by existing screening methods .
The Galleri test developed by Grail analysed samples from 6,662 individuals aged 50 and older and found 35 participants had cancer , 71 percent of whom showed signs of malignancies that have no routine screening available , such as pancreatic cancer . About half of the nonrecurrent cancers were in the early stages ( stage I or II ), a time when they are easier to treat , thus increasing survival rates for patients .
Participants who got a positive blood test were later confirmed to have cancer with additional examinations in 38 percent of the cases , while 99.1 percent of those who were cancer free tested negative with Galleri .
�The results are an important first step for early cancer detection tests because they showed a good detection rate for people who had cancer and an excellent specificity rate for those who did not have cancer . In people with a positive test , it took less than two months to confirm the diagnosis if they had cancer and it took a bit longer if they did not have cancer primarily because physicians opted to perform imaging studies and then repeat them a second time several months later to investigate the possibility of a cancer diagnosis ,” explained study senior author Dr Deb Schrag from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in a press release .
She added that standard screening programmes were essential for tumours like breast and colorectal cancers , while blood tests like Galleri needed to be refined and validated especially for cancers that currently can ’ t be screened such as those in the pancreas , small bowel , and stomach .
Chemotherapy doesn ’ t lead to stillbirth
The information might reassure women who want to get pregnant after cancer treatment
Adolescent and young women with cancer who were treated with chemotherapy did not see an increased risk of stillbirth , when babies are born dead , according to a recent analysis published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute .
“ There are very few studies of birth outcomes among adolescent and young adult women with cancer who later get pregnant ,” said Dr Caitlin C . Murphy , associate professor of health promotion and behavioral sciences at UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston , in a press release . She added that the new study provided essential information for women who were worried about having a healthy baby after cancer treatment .
Some chemotherapeutic and radiation approaches can damage eggs , and previous studies have suggested this could affect the health of future babies . But the new research showed otherwise . It looked at 11,696 deliveries of 8,402 women aged 15 to 39 who were diagnosed with cancer from 1995 to 2015 and compared their stillbirth rate with that of the general population who didn ’ t undergo cancer treatment . Both groups had a similar rate , standing at less than one percent .
“ It ’ s the best kind of null result ,” Dr Murphy said in the press release .
20 SEPTEMBER 2022 GlobalHealthAsiaPacific . com