On August 20, 2021, Delfi Diagnostics announced that the company's new early blood screening technology based on machine learning has achieved positive results in a prospective study to help improve early lung cancer detection
.
The results show that this new type of lung cancer screening technology, by using advanced machine learning algorithms to analyze the genome fragmentation map of cell-free DNA (cfDNA), can accurately detect in a group of individuals undergoing low-dose CT (LDCT) scans Approximately 90% of cancer cases
.
This convenient and high-performance detection method is expected to help reduce lung cancer deaths
.
The results were published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications
.
Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths worldwide
.
The vast majority of lung cancers are already at an advanced stage where the prognosis is often poor when they are diagnosed
.
LDCT scans can screen for cancer early and effectively reduce the overall mortality of high-risk groups, but less than 6% of people have received the recommended screening
.
Researchers estimate that through improved screening and early detection, hundreds of thousands of deaths can be prevented globally
.
Usually, liquid biopsy detects the signs of cancer by detecting genetic mutations or DNA methylation changes in DNA fragments in the blood
.
Delfi's liquid biopsy takes another approach, using advanced machine learning technology to analyze the genome fragmentation characteristics of cell-free DNA in the whole genome
.
In cancer cells, DNA packaging is often abnormal, resulting in changes in the characteristics of so-called genome fragmentation
.
When cancer cells die and release their DNA into the bloodstream, this technique can detect abnormal DNA fragments
.
This technology has high sensitivity and high specificity, can be widely used in large or small laboratories, and uses millions of data points to identify the existence of tumors and accurately locate the tumor's position in the body
.
▲Delfi's liquid biopsy diagram (picture source: Delfi's official website)
The prospective study called "LUCAS" enrolled 365 subjects over a 7-year period, most of whom had a high risk of lung cancer and smoking-related symptoms, such as coughing or dyspnea
.
The results of this study were verified in another study involving 431 subjects (with or without lung cancer)
.
When Delfi's liquid biopsy is used as an early screening method to determine whether patients need LDCT scans, the combination of the two detects 90% of lung cancer patients, including 80% of stage I lung cancers, and the number of unnecessary LDCTs Reduce by 50%
.
"Because blood testing is much easier than LDCT, we believe that a high-performance, cost-effective testing method can greatly increase the number of early detection of lung cancer, thereby improving treatment results
.
Compared with the current standard of care, it can also eliminate a lot of “The false positive result of the
disease.
” said Dr.
Nic Dracopoli, Chief Scientific Officer of Delfi, “This test is particularly suitable for lung cancer screening because we have shown that it can detect both small cell carcinoma (SCLC) and non-small cell carcinoma (NSCLC).
No other lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) will be detected
.
"
Reference materials:
[1] Mathios, D.
, et, al.
(2021).
Detection and characterization of lung cancer using cell-free DNA fragmentomes.
Nature Communications, 12(1).
https://doi.
org/10.
1038/s41467-021 -24994-w
[2] Delfi Liquid Biopsy Shows Promise for Reducing Lung Cancer Deaths.
Retrieved August 20, 2021, from https:// -cancer-deaths-301359627.
html
