Now, screening tests can detect signs of cancer. Joyce Ares, 74, recently donated a blood sample for research. After repeated blood tests, PET scans and needle biopsies, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.Also read – Exercise for Slow Growth of Bowel Cancer and Tumors – Research Speaks!
“I cried,” said the retired real estate broker. “Just two tears and thought, ‘Okay, what do we do now?'” Also read – Does our risk of cancer increase with age? Expert answers
A resident of Canberra, Oregon, volunteered to take a blood test that is being billed as a new frontier in cancer screening for healthy people. It looks for cancer by examining the DNA fragments flowing through the tumor cells. Also read – Yuvraj Singh’s gestures win hearts during cancer time for cancer patients
Such blood tests, called liquid biopsies, are already being used in patients with cancer to adapt their treatment and to see if the tumors return.
Now, a company is promoting its blood tests for people who have no signs of cancer as a way to find tumors in the pancreas, ovaries and other sites that do not have a recommended screening method. It is an open question whether such cancer blood tests – if added to regular care – could improve the health of Americans or help meet the White House’s goal of halving cancer mortality in the next 25 years.
With advances in DNA sequencing and data science making blood tests possible, California-based Grail and other companies are scrambling to commercialize it.
And U.S. government researchers are planning a large experiment – possibly seven years and with 200,000 participants – to see if blood tests can live up to the promise of catching more cancer early and saving lives.
“They sound wonderful, but we do not have enough information,” said Dr. Krishna, of the National Cancer Institute. Said Lori Minassin, who is involved in planning the research. “We don’t have specific data showing that they will reduce the risk of dying from cancer.”
Grail is far ahead of other companies with 2,000 doctors willing to write a $ 949 test. Most insurance plans do not cover costs. The tests are marketed without the support of medical groups or the recommendation of US health officials. This type of test does not require a review by the Food and Drug Administration.
“For a drug, the FDA demands that there is a significantly higher probability that the benefits are not only proven, but also outweigh the disadvantages. Not so for devices like blood tests, “said Dr. Lisa Schwartz of the Foundation for Truth in Medicine. Said Barry Kramer.
Grail plans to seek approval from the FDA, but is marketing its test when submitting data to the agency.
The history of cancer screening has taught caution. In 2004, Japan stopped mass screening of infants for childhood cancer because the study found it could not save lives. Last year, a 16-year study of 200,000 women in the United Kingdom found that regular screening for ovarian cancer made no difference in mortality.
Cases like these have raised some surprises: Screening reveals some cancers that do not need to be treated. Flip side? Many dangerous cancers grow so fast that they avoid screening and prove fatal anyway.
And screening can do more harm than good. Anxiety from false positives. Unnecessary expenses. And serious side effects from cancer care: PSA tests for men can lead to treatment complications such as incontinence or impotence, even if some slow-growing prostate cancer never causes problems.
The evidence for the screening test for breast, cervical and colon cancer is the strongest. For some smokers, screening for lung cancer is recommended.
Recommended tests – mammography, PAP tests, colonoscopy – look for one cancer at a time. New blood tests look for multiple cancers simultaneously. Dr. Grail’s executive. According to Joshua Ofman, this is an advantage.
“We’re screening for four or five cancers in this country, but (many) cancer deaths are coming from cancers we’re not looking for at all,” Offman said.
Dr. of the University of Oregon Health and Science in Portland. Thomas leads a study sponsored by a beer company in which Joyce Ares joined in 2020. After a miserable winter of chemotherapy and radiation, doctors said her treatment was successful.
Her case is no outlier, “but she hopes for an ideal outcome, and not everyone will get it,” Beer said.
While other early cancers were found in study participants, some had less obvious experiences. For some, blood tests lead to scans that have never detected cancer, which may mean that the result was a false positive, or it may mean that there is a mysterious cancer that will appear later. For others, blood tests revealed cancer that turned out to be advanced and invasive, Beer said. An elderly participant with a bad case refused treatment.
Grail continues to update his testing as he learns from these studies, and is sponsoring a trial with the UK’s National Health Service in 140,000 people to see if a blood test could reduce the number of cancers caught in the last stage.
Although Ares is considered lucky, it is impossible to know if her testing added healthy years to her life, making no real difference, said Kramer, a former director of the cancer prevention department at the National Cancer Institute.
“I sincerely hope that Joyce has benefited from this test,” Kramer said of her experience. “But unfortunately, we don’t know at the individual Joyce level, whether that is the case.”
Cancer treatment can have long-term side effects, he said, “and we don’t know how fast the tumor will grow.” Treatment of Hodgkin’s lymphoma is so effective that delaying treatment until she shows symptoms can yield equally pleasant results.
For now, health experts insist that a grail blood test is not a diagnosis of cancer; A positive result initiates further scans and biopsies.
“This is a method of diagnostic testing that has never been attempted before,” Kramer said. “Our destination is a test that has a clear net benefit. If we don’t do it carefully, we will get out of the way.
(With AP inputs)
