NMR for cancer diagnosis
Analysis of 70 blood metabolites will help to detect any cancer at an early stage
Anastasia Kuznetsova-Fantoni, N+1
Scientists from Oxford have developed a new method of early cancer diagnosis, in which the presence of any malignant tumor is determined by the concentration of 70 blood metabolites by nuclear magnetic resonance. The researchers tested the development on 294 patients who came to the hospital with complaints of fatigue and weight loss. Article by Larkin et al. Metabolic Biomarkers in Blood Samples Identify Cancers in a Mixed Population of Patients with Nonspecific Symptoms published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
Cancer in the initial stages often does not manifest itself in any way, and when the patient notices the first symptoms and comes to the doctor, the disease is already at a stage when it is difficult to treat. Therefore, teams of scientists around the world are trying to develop methods for early diagnosis of cancer. Researchers from The University of Massachusetts, for example, has learned to diagnose oncological diseases by urine analysis: they used nanoparticles that are modified by cancer proteases and in this modified form are excreted from the body. This method allows you to diagnose cancer within a few weeks after its occurrence.
In addition, a blood test is often used to detect cancer. So, American researchers have created a test with which they determine both DNA mutations and protein markers. Based on such combined data, eight types of cancer can be diagnosed with high accuracy.
Another test system analyzing blood composition was created by researchers from the University of Oxford, led by Fay Probert (Fay Probert). It uses nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which measures the concentration of 70 metabolites. Using such a set of parameters calculated for each patient, it is possible to determine whether a person has a malignant tumor or not, regardless of its type.
The scientists tested how sensitive the developed method is, and also to see if it is possible to use it to understand whether the patient has metastases. They recruited 294 people into the study who went to the doctor with complaints of fatigue and weight loss. These symptoms may be signs of cancer, but they do not necessarily indicate cancer. Blood was taken from all patients for analysis and the composition of the metabolites contained in it was found out.
The test system detected cancer in 27 patients. At the same time, she was wrong only in 1 case out of 20 examined. The scientists concluded that the sensitivity of the method was 94 percent. In addition, the method predicted metastases in 94 percent of cases.
Researchers want to introduce this method of early diagnosis of cancer in ordinary hospitals, but for this in the future, tests will still be needed on larger samples of patients with different types of cancer.
Early detection of oncological diseases can reduce mortality from them. For example, screening for lung cancer, according to the results of meta-analysis, reduced mortality from this disease by 16 percent.
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