Ultrasensitive Blood Test Detects ‘Pan-Cancer’ Biomarker

Good news! Cancer is history (soon)!

I blogged here, here recently about other new, very sensitive cancer tests.

"Pathology experts engineered an ultrasensitive test capable of detecting a highly specific biomarker found in multiple common cancers ...
evaluated the tool’s ability to detect the biomarker in ovarian cancer, gastroesophageal cancer, colon cancer, and other cancers

Diagnostic assays have potential for early cancer detection, monitoring, and prognostics

Marker ‘LINE-1 ORF1p’ is a protein encoded by a human transposon that has further potential applications in tissue diagnostics and may also facilitate treatment of cancers for which no accurate biomarkers exist ...
“We were shocked by how well this test worked in detecting the biomarker’s expression across cancer types,” ...
A limitation of the study is that the results don’t provide key pieces of information, such as the location of the cancerous tissues in the body. ..."

From the abstract:

"Improved biomarkers are needed for early cancer detection, risk stratification, treatment selection, and monitoring treatment response. While proteins can be useful blood-based biomarkers, many have limited sensitivity or specificity for these applications. Long INterspersed Element-1 (LINE-1) open reading frame 1 protein (ORF1p) is a transposable element protein overexpressed in carcinomas and high-risk precursors during carcinogenesis with negligible expression in normal tissues, suggesting ORF1p could be a highly specific cancer biomarker. To explore ORF1p as a blood-based biomarker, we engineered ultrasensitive digital immunoassays that detect mid-attomolar (10-17 M) ORF1p concentrations in plasma across multiple cancers with high specificity. Plasma ORF1p shows promise for early detection of ovarian cancer, improves diagnostic performance in a multi-analyte panel, provides early therapeutic response monitoring in gastroesophageal cancers, and is prognostic for overall survival in gastroesophageal and colorectal cancers. Together, these observations nominate ORF1p as a multi-cancer biomarker with potential utility for disease detection and monitoring."

Ultrasensitive Blood Test Detects ‘Pan-Cancer’ Biomarker Low-cost, ultrasensitive blood test that detects minute levels of a cancer-specific protein across a range of cancer types opens new opportunities for early detection and monitoring

Ultrasensitive detection of circulating LINE-1 ORF1p as a specific multi-cancer biomarker (open access)