Scientists hope the proteins could be used as an early form of screening. Photo / 123rf
Scientists hope the proteins could be used as an early form of screening. Photo / 123rf
A blood test could detect early signs of cancer up to seven years before diagnosis, a study suggests.
A total of 618 proteins have been found in the blood of cancer patients and linked to 19 different types of the disease, including bowel, prostate and breast cancer.
Some 107 of the proteins were found in a group of people whose blood was collected at least seven years before diagnosis.
It is hoped the findings could help efforts to stop cancer before it starts and scientists hope the proteins could be used as an early form of screening.
The two Cancer Research UK-funded studies from Oxford Population Health suggest the proteins could be involved in the earliest stages of cancer.
These studies provide many new clues about the causes and biology of multiple cancers. Photo / 123rf
New clues about causes of multiple cancers
Prof Ruth Travis, senior molecular epidemiologist at Oxford Population Health and a senior author of both studies, said: “To be able to prevent cancer, we need to understand the factors driving the earliest stages of its development.
“These studies are important because they provide many new clues about the causes and biology of multiple cancers, including insights into what’s happening years before a cancer is diagnosed.
“We now have technology that can look at thousands of proteins across thousands of cancer cases, identifying which proteins have a role in the development of specific cancers, and which might have effects that are common to multiple cancer types.”
Dr Iain Foulkes, executive director of research and innovation at Cancer Research UK, said: “Preventing cancer means looking out for the earliest warning signs of the disease.
“That means intensive, painstaking research to find the molecular signals we should pay closest attention to.
“Discoveries from this research are the crucial first step towards offering preventative therapies which is the ultimate route for giving people longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.”
The team analysed a set of 1463 proteins from a single blood sample from each person. Photo / 123rf
Further research needed
In the first study, scientists analysed blood samples from UK Biobank taken from more than 44,000 people, including 4900 who subsequently had a cancer diagnosis.
The team analysed a set of 1463 proteins from a single sample of blood from each person and compared the proteins of people who were later diagnosed with cancer and others who were not, allowing them to identify molecules linked to cancer risk.
The scientists also identified 182 proteins that differed in the blood three years before a cancer diagnosis.
In the second study, the researchers looked at genetic data from more than 300,000 cancer cases to analyse which blood proteins were involved in cancer development and could be targeted by new treatments.
Some 40 proteins in the blood were found to influence someone’s risk of getting nine different types of cancer: bladder, breast, endometrium, head and neck, lung, ovary, pancreas, kidney and malignant non-melanoma.
The researchers stress that further research is needed to find out the exact role the proteins play in cancer development, which are the most reliable ones to test for, what tests could be developed to detect the proteins in a clinic, and which drugs could target the proteins.
A cancer-spotting blood test called Galleri is being trialled in the NHS (National Health Service in the UK) but looks for tumour DNA circulating in the blood and not proteins.
