Good news! Cancer is history (soon)! One day (in the near future) regular cancer checkups will be possible!
"Blood tests – simple, noninvasive and economically feasible – promise to become the next major milestone in cancer diagnosis. ... A new, multiparameter approach developed ... may lead to a blood test that will diagnose cancer with unprecedented accuracy. ...
The idea for diagnosing cancer using liquid biopsies arose from the fact that blood contains free-floating DNA and proteins shed by dead blood cells in healthy people – and in cancer patients, by dead tumor cells as well. ...
compared the nucleosomes in the blood of 30 healthy individuals with those of 60 patients with different stages of colorectal cancer. They found that the nucleosomes of the two groups were characterized by vastly different patterns of epigenetic marking. This analysis covered six different epigenetic modifications linked to cancer, as well as a variety of other cancer indicators, including protein segments from dead tumors, which are undetectable by conventional technologies. ...
The idea for diagnosing cancer using liquid biopsies arose from the fact that blood contains free-floating DNA and proteins shed by dead blood cells in healthy people – and in cancer patients, by dead tumor cells as well. ...
compared the nucleosomes in the blood of 30 healthy individuals with those of 60 patients with different stages of colorectal cancer. They found that the nucleosomes of the two groups were characterized by vastly different patterns of epigenetic marking. This analysis covered six different epigenetic modifications linked to cancer, as well as a variety of other cancer indicators, including protein segments from dead tumors, which are undetectable by conventional technologies. ...
the scientists combined what they had revealed about the molecular biology of cancer with artificial intelligence algorithms, applying machine learning to the large data sets obtained from the two groups. ...
“Our algorithm could tell the difference between the healthy and the patient groups at a record level of certainty for studies of this type – with 92 percent precision,” ... The scientists call the new technology EPINUC, an acronym for “epigenetics of plasma-isolated nucleosomes.” ..."
From the abstract:
"The analysis of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in plasma provides information on pathological processes in the body. Blood cfDNA is in the form of nucleosomes, which maintain their tissue- and cancer-specific epigenetic state. We developed a single-molecule multiparametric assay to comprehensively profile the epigenetics of plasma-isolated nucleosomes (EPINUC), DNA methylation and cancer-specific protein biomarkers. Our system allows for high-resolution detection of six active and repressive histone modifications and their ratios and combinatorial patterns on millions of individual nucleosomes by single-molecule imaging. In addition, our system provides sensitive and quantitative data on plasma proteins, including detection of non-secreted tumor-specific proteins, such as mutant p53. EPINUC analysis of a cohort of 63 colorectal cancer, 10 pancreatic cancer and 33 healthy plasma samples detected cancer with high accuracy and sensitivity, even at early stages. Finally, combining EPINUC with direct single-molecule DNA sequencing revealed the tissue of origin of colorectal, pancreatic, lung and breast tumors. EPINUC provides multilayered information of potential clinical relevance from limited (<1 ml) liquid biopsy material. "
Multiplexed, single-molecule, epigenetic analysis of plasma-isolated nucleosomes for cancer diagnostics (no public access)
Different patterns of epigenetic markers revealed by EPINUC on blood nucleosomes (bright-red dots) of a healthy person (left) and a colorectal cancer patient (right)
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