Cancer detection with one drop of blood

A team comprising Swedish, Dutch and US researchers has developed an RNA test of blood platelets that can be used to detect cancer. By analysing a sample equivalent to one drop of blood, the researchers were able to identify, classify and pinpoint the location of the cancer with impressive accuracy.

Writing in the journal Cancer Cell, the team explained that tumour-educated blood platelets (TEPs) are implicated as central players in the systemic and local responses to tumour growth, thereby altering their RNA profile. Through the mRNA sequencing of 283 platelet samples, the researchers were able to determine the diagnostic potential of these TEPs.

Of the 283 individuals studied, 228 people had some form of cancer and 55 showed no evidence of cancer. By comparing the blood samples RNA profiles, researchers could identify the presence of cancer with an accuracy of 96% among patients. Among the 39 patients in the study in which an early detection of cancer had been made, 100% of the cases could be identified and classified.

In follow-up tests using the same method, researchers could identify the origin of tumours with an accuracy of 71% in patients with diagnosed cancer in the lung, breast, pancreas, brain, liver, colon and rectum. The samples could also be sorted in subdivisions, depending on molecular differences in the cancer form, which can be of great use in the choice of treatment method.

“We have studied how a whole new blood-based method of biopsy can be used to detect cancer, which in the future renders an invasive cell tissue sample unnecessary in diagnosing lung cancer, for instance,” said study co-author Jonas Nilsson, a cancer researcher at Umeå University.

“In the study, nearly all forms of cancer were identified, which proves that blood-based biopsies have an immense potential to improve early detection of cancer.”

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