Liquid biopsy: a new way of early screening for cancer

When Kathy Lim was 11 weeks pregnant, a routine blood sample test showed that she had multiple DNA fragment abnormalities Further analysis found that these abnormalities did not come from the fetus, but from her own white blood cells - the cancer cells of follicular lymphoma, which she defeated two and a half years ago, have quietly returned Among the many cancer patients, Kathy is lucky A check-up helped her detect the presence of cancer cells early in the recurrence of the disease Now, a new diagnostic concept, liquid biopsy, is expected to make this kind of luck a normal "I think it's the most amazing idea in the medical world, the need is everywhere." When asked about the original intention of joining grail, a star enterprise in the field of liquid biopsy, Mr Hans bishop, an industry veteran with more than 30 years of successful and legendary experience, was still excited Liquid biopsy is an in vitro diagnostic technique based on biomarkers in various body fluids Compared with the traditional diagnosis methods such as tissue biopsy, it has the advantages of non-invasive, easy to obtain samples, real-time and repeated detection, and overcoming heterogeneity, and is considered to be one of the most reliable individual diagnosis methods Early diagnosis of cancer and early intervention or treatment is an important means to improve the survival rate of cancer patients However, there are still many gaps in early screening and diagnosis of many cancer types "The problem of late onset and late diagnosis of cancer is common." It is to see the unmet medical needs in this field that grail came into being, committed to using liquid biopsy technology to develop a new generation of early screening methods for cancer At Hans In Mr Bishop's opinion, it is the most potential idea in the medical field to realize early diagnosis and treatment of cancer before symptoms appear by looking for signals in body fluids such as blood "According to the results of model simulation, develop a successful early cancer screening, so that it can be widely used in people over 50 years old in the United States, and it can reduce the death toll of cancer patients, which is quite The sum of all cancer treatments at present! " He looks forward to making a difference in this regard The prospect of liquid biopsy sounds very attractive, but it is not easy to realize "We look at the free DNA (cfdna) in the blood and use a complex algorithm to determine if it comes from cancer cells." As Mr Hans bishop introduced in the forum, all cells, including cancer cells, will release their DNA into the blood when they die Through the analysis of these cfdna, it is expected to find traces of cancer in the early stage But in the blood, the free DNA from cancer cells may only account for 0.1% or less of all the free DNA It is found that DNA fragments belonging to cancer cells are no different from needle in a haystack "We integrate many different disciplines, including big data, machine learning, technical skills and biology, medicine, engineering, etc." In Mr Hans Bishop's view, the world's leading cutting-edge technology has improved the chance of "catching the needle" for grail Grail is committed to the integration of next-generation gene sequencing (NGS) technology, cutting-edge computer science and data science, as well as large-scale clinical research, to develop liquid biopsy methods for early diagnosis of cancer By extracting cfdna from the blood of patients and analyzing the methylation state of cfdna, we can find the existence of cancer and its tissue source The latest test data shows that the company's multi cancer liquid biopsy technology can detect the presence of cancer with 99.4% specificity (equivalent to 0.6% false positive) "We have been able to detect 20 types of cancer, accounting for 95% of all cancers, and 90% of them can accurately predict the source of cancer tissue." These 20 types of cancer include: HR negative breast cancer, colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, head and neck cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, multiple myeloma, ovarian cancer, lymphoma, pancreatic cancer, etc At present, this detection method has been recognized as a breakthrough medical device by FDA Whether it is in the field of early screening of global cancer or grail, it is a milestone event "We are trying to find all the cancers." Since its establishment three and a half years ago, grail is bringing more value to doctors and patients with its gratifying progress and achievements For Mr Hans bishop, however, this is just the beginning, "if you can really diagnose these cancers earlier, it will open up a whole new field of medical research." Expanding drug development for early cancer is one aspect of the application of liquid biopsy technology Mr Hans bishop, taking the drug development of early pancreatic cancer as an example, "if you want to conduct phase 1 clinical trials of pancreatic cancer today, it is almost impossible to complete patient registration." Pancreatic cancer is a kind of digestive tract malignant tumor with short course, rapid progress and high degree of deterioration Its 5-year survival rate is only 5% to 10% It is generally found that it is late, also known as the "king of cancer" Therefore, if we want to develop drugs for early pancreatic cancer today, it is logically difficult to achieve, because the disease progresses too fast, most of the pancreatic cancer patients die within half a year after discovery, and we can not find enough patients to participate in clinical trials But liquid biopsy is expected to change this dilemma, because only a weak signal is needed, and liquid biopsy will respond, which will help the early diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer and even drug development In addition, cfdna can tell us about the fatal and non fatal nature of tumors, "which will change the way we segment and intervene in patients." Mr Hans bishop believes that this is also a window for us to understand diseases Only if we understand diseases better, we can have more opportunities to defeat them "Grail exists to reduce the number of people dying of cancer." Looking forward to the future, Mr Hans bishop proposed a potential application scenario: let this technology become part of the annual routine physical examination With only one or two tubes of blood, cancer can be screened just like cholesterol "There are 70 million Americans who see doctors at least once a year for some form of prevention advice It would be a good business if there was a good way to detect cancer early and add it to the physical examination " As Ms Melinda Richter said, the world needs not only ways to treat diseases, but also means of diagnosis and screening to intercept diseases early Let's hope that in the near future, we can find the clues of cancer through simple blood test, and bring more timely and targeted diagnosis and treatment programs for patients around the world (Note: the original text has been deleted) Original title: liquid biopsy: changing the trajectory of cancer mortality A kind of