Breakthrough in Gastric Cancer Detection: Researchers Develop a Non-Invasive Blood Test

Strategic Insights -

Fudan University researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery in the field of gastric cancer detection. A new study, published in the Molecular Cancer journal, presents a non-invasive blood test called GutSeer, which can detect five major gastrointestinal cancers, including gastric cancer, with high accuracy. The test combines DNA methylation and fragmentomics sequencing, outperforming genome-wide sequencing in both accuracy and clinical applicability.

Key Takeaways:

  • Researchers at Fudan University developed a non-invasive blood test called GutSeer, which can detect five major gastrointestinal cancers, including gastric cancer, with high accuracy.
  • The test combines DNA methylation and fragmentomics sequencing, identifying 1,656 markers specific to five major GI cancers and their tissue origins.
  • In a validation cohort of 846 participants, GutSeer achieved an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.950 for cancer detection, with 82.8% sensitivity and 95.8% specificity.
  • The test was also able to detect 92.2% of colorectal, 75.5% of esophageal, 65.3% of gastric, 92.9% of liver, and 88.6% of pancreatic cancers.
  • GutSeer maintained robust performance in an independent test cohort, detecting 81.5% of GI cancers and 94.4% specificity.

Statistics:

  • 1,656 markers specific to five major GI cancers and their tissue origins were identified through genome-wide methylome profiling.
  • In the validation cohort, GutSeer achieved an AUC of 0.950 for cancer detection.
  • The test had 82.8% sensitivity (95% CI: 79.5-86.0) and 95.8% specificity (95% CI: 94.3-97.2) for cancer detection.
  • The test was able to detect 92.2% of colorectal, 75.5% of esophageal, 65.3% of gastric, 92.9% of liver, and 88.6% of pancreatic cancers.
  • 198 early-stage cancers (stage I/II, 66.4%) and 63 advanced precancerous lesions were detected in the independent test cohort.

Sources:

  • GUIDE: a prospective cohort study for blood-based early detection of gastrointestinal cancers using targeted DNA methylation and fragmentomics sequencing. Molecular Cancer, 2025,24(1):1-16. (Molecular Cancer - https://molecular-cancer.biomedcentral.com/).
  • Cancer Weekly, June 24, 2025; p 332.