Daily Express - 08.08.2019

6 Daily Express Thursday, August 8, 2019

DX1ST

Blood test

ing for a needle in a haystack. But by

developing a test that’s unique to

each patient, and looking for muta-

tions across the entire tumour, we’ve

made it much harder for the circulat-

ing tumour DNA to hide, signifi-

cantly increasing the chance of iden-

tifying cancer relapses earlier. This

could be a game-changer.”

Scientists will now carry out a

larger study of over 200 patients.

The study was published in journal

Science Translational Medicine.

Cancer specialist Professor Justin

Stebbing, of Imperial College

London, said: “Both over and under-

treatment of patients with early stage

cancer remains a challenge as we

don’t always know how much ther-

apy to give, or when to stop it.

“The hope is that blood tests may

one day be used instead of biopsies

of cancers to monitor patients more

quickly and reliably and with better

results. That looks like a pretty realis-

tic prospect in the not too distant

future, and not over confidence.”

Charity researcher Dr Kotryna

Temcinaite said: “It’s really promising.”

Breast cancer is the most common

cancer in the UK, causing 11,

deaths annually.

More than 55,000 women receive

a diagnosis each year.

A NEW “game-changing” blood test

that can monitor patients with

early stage breast cancer could

revolutionise treatment, experts said

last night.

Up to 100 times more sensitive

than existing tests, it could tell

doctors if treatments are working

and prevent women undergoing

unnecessary surgery or drug therapy.

The technique, known as Targeted

Digital Sequencing (Tardis), analyses

tiny fragments of DNA from cancer

cells in the bloodstream.

US researchers hope it may have

applications beyond breast cancer

and could be used to monitor other

forms of the disease.

Study lead Dr Muhammed

Murtaza, of the Translational

Genomics Research Institute in

Arizona, where the test was

developed, said: “Until now, blood

tests for breast cancer have only

been sensitive enough to reliably

identify tumour DNA in people with

advanced disease.

“We’ve shown that Tardis is able to

detect circulating DNA at extremely

low concentrations in the blood,

opening up the possibility of moni-

toring patients with early-stage

breast cancer to find out how their

disease is responding to treatment.”

Many people with early-stage

breast cancer are treated with drugs

before surgery to shrink their

tumour. However, in 30 per cent of

cases no breast cancer cells are found

when they go under the knife, as the

earlier treatments were effective.

Doctors currently have no way of

knowing which women could avoid

unnecessary operations.

Researchers used Tardis to analyse

80 samples of blood from

33 British and US patients enrolled

at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in

Cambridge and two clinics in

Arizona and California.

The test was able to identify

tumour DNA in the bloodstream of

every patient before they started

pre-surgery treatment.

After they had undergone chemo-

therapy, radiotherapy or hormone

therapy, the test was used again to

measure how much tumour DNA

levels had dropped.

Women who were found to have

no breast cancer cells remaining

during surgery also had less tumour

DNA in their blood.

Cancer Research UK’s chief scien-

tist, Professor Karen Vousden, said:

“Although still in its early stages, this

innovative new technology has the

potential to increase the number of

people who can benefit. A blood test

that indicates whether a therapy has

been effective could prevent some

patients from undergoing further

unnecessary treatments.”

Tardis is more precise than other

cancer blood tests as it looks for

DNA sequences specific to each

patient’s cancer. Professor Carlos

Caldas, director of the Breast Cancer

Programme at the Cancer Research

UK Cambridge Centre, who contrib-

uted to the study, said: “Finding

cancer DNA in the blood is like look-

Amanda Mealing and, right,

the 52-year-old star in her

role in the hit show Casualty

By Hanna Geissler

Health Reporter

Identify

£250m extra on AI technology

to help transform NHS care

THE lives of thousands of NHS

patients could be saved thanks

to £250million extra for artificial

intelligence, ministers are set to

announce today.

New technology will speed up

the results of tests including

mammograms, brain scans, eye

scans and heart monitoring.

Robots will also identify

patients most at risk of heart

disease or dementia, allowing

earlier diagnosis and cheaper

prevention, it is hoped. A

national artificial intelligence

laboratory will bring together

academics, specialists and tech

firms. Boris Johnson was due to

say the NHS “is leading the way

in harnessing new technology to

treat and prevent, from earlier

cancer detection to spotting the

deadly signs of dementia”.

Today’s announcement

follows £1.8billion already

promised for 20 hospital

upgrades and infrastructure.

NHS England chief Simon

Stevens said: “Carefully targeted

AI is now ready for practical

application in health services.”

OPINION: PAGE 12

By Martyn Brown

Senior Political Correspondent