Revolutionary Cancer Test Predicts Treatment Needs Up to 10 Years in Advance

Strategic Insights -

Scientists from The Institute of Cancer Research and the Hospital Clinic-IDIBAPS Biomedical Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain, have developed a groundbreaking test that can predict when treatment will be needed for cancer patients up to 10 years in advance. This novel technique, published in the journal Nature, tracks the evolutionary history of a tumour from a single sample, analyzing subtle changes in tumour DNA called methylation. By understanding how cancer evolves, doctors can predict how a patient's disease might progress, and even predict how an individual might respond to treatment. The test has been successfully tested on different types of blood cancer and has the potential to be used across all cancer types, offering better prediction of disease progression and ongoing monitoring without the need for repeated invasive biopsies.

Key Takeaways:

  • The new test can decode when someone's cancer first started growing and how fast it is growing, potentially allowing doctors to accurately predict when a patient will need treatment.
  • The test analyzes methylation marks on the DNA of cancer cells, which act like a 'barcode' for each cancer cell, helping to trace the 'family tree' of a tumour.
  • The researchers developed a mathematical model called EVOFLUx to read the barcodes and reconstruct the tumour's evolutionary history from the tumour sample.
  • The team used EVOFLUx to analyze DNA methylation data from over 2,000 patients with various types of blood cancers, including both aggressive and slow-growing diseases.
  • The findings showed that each patient's cancer has a unique evolutionary history, with some cancers growing in the body for more than a decade before they were first detected.
  • In patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), the test accurately predicted that those with faster-growing cancer cells would need treatment sooner and had a shorter overall survival time.
  • The study also demonstrated that the test can accurately predict the growth rate of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in young children, which is a fast-growing cancer that often requires urgent treatment.
  • The new method uses low-cost DNA methylation testing, which is widely available and suitable for use on a large scale.
  • The study received funding from Cancer Research UK, the Spanish Association Against Cancer, the United States National Institutes of Health, The La Caixa Foundation, and the European Research Council.
  • The next steps will be to demonstrate, in clinical trials, how well the predictions work.

Statistics:

  • The test can predict when treatment will be needed for cancer patients up to 10 years in advance.
  • The test has been tested successfully on over 2,000 patients with various types of blood cancers.
  • In patients with CLL, the test accurately predicted that those with faster-growing cancer cells would need treatment sooner and had a shorter overall survival time (1.5 times the risk of their cancer being fatal).
  • The test showed that some cancers had been growing in the body for more than a decade before they were first detected.
  • The test demonstrated that the growth rate of ALL in young children can be accurately predicted (e.g., patients with faster-growing ALL had nearly four times the risk of needing treatment sooner).

Sources:

  • The Institute of Cancer Research
  • Hospital Clinic-IDIBAPS Biomedical Research Institute of Barcelona, Spain
  • Cancer Research UK
  • Spanish Association Against Cancer
  • United States National Institutes of Health
  • The La Caixa Foundation
  • European Research Council
  • Nature (journal)
  • ICR.ac.uk (news source)