Posted on 04/10/2022 7:40:45 AM PDT by libh8er
The earlier cancer is detected, the better the chance of successful treatment. Pancreatic cancer, for example, is one of the deadliest cancers. Physicians rarely find the tumor before it causes symptoms, and by then, it has spread to other tissues. For the few patients diagnosed before the cancer spreads, the 5-year survival rate is almost 60%; otherwise, the survival rate is less than 5%.
“Pancreatic cancer has the lowest five-year relative survival rate of all major cancer killers and is the only one for which both the incidence and death rates are increasing,” explained Dr. Andrew Lowy, clinical director for Cancer Surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to detect early, at a stage when surgical resection, the only curative therapy, is possible.”
Lowy and his colleagues set out to develop a novel screening platform that could detect early-stage cancer. Their technique, recently published in Nature Communications Medicine, uncovered more than 95% of early pancreatic cancers. Their trick was to tap into the intercellular communication network.
Extracellular vesicles: A parcel in the intercellular communication network Over the last couple decades, cancer researchers have discovered dozens of cancer-related biomarkers that play a role in cancer growth and survival. These discoveries have led to the development of powerful cancer treatments. The researchers at UCSD suspected these molecules could be used to identify cancer early. Unfortunately, these molecules are tricky to find.
Multi-cancer detection tests (MCDTs) involve screening for blood-based proteins or nucleic acids that are indicative of cancer. Several MCD tests have shown promise for detecting late-stage cancers. Catching early-stage cancers, however, has proven much more challenging. During the early stages, there are very few cancer-related biomarkers and many unrelated molecules. Consequently, MCDTs aren’t sensitive enough to spot signs of cancer. In other words, there is too much background noise. So the researchers decided they would only focus on one thing: extracellular vesicles (EVs) — tiny, bubble-like blobs that mediate cell-to-cell communication.
Vesicles can be used to screen for early cancer signals Healthy cells and cancer cells eject EVs into the bloodstream. Cancer-derived EVs often carry lots of cancer-associated protein biomarkers, which can cause problems. When these proteins are delivered to other cancer cells, they can increase chemotherapeutic drug resistance, enhance metastasis, increase nutrient delivery, and disrupt the immune system, according to previous studies. But there is a silver lining: the contents of EVs hold diagnostic potential.
For example, some pancreatic cancer-derived EVs carry a protein called macrophage inhibitory factor (MIF), which suppresses the immune system. However, the amount of MIF in the vesicle may serve as a predictive marker for liver metastasis. That is, the more MIF there is, the more likely that the cancer will spread to the liver.
Lowy and his team purified EVs from the blood of patients with early pancreatic, ovarian, and bladder cancers, as well as from healthy controls. Then, they analyzed the protein composition of the samples. Comparing the samples from cancer and control patients, the scientists developed a machine-learning algorithm to identify a small set of EV proteins that can be used to detect early-stage pancreatic, ovarian, and bladder cancers.
Their algorithm successfully detected 95.5% of stage 1 pancreatic cancers, 73.1% of stage 1 ovarian cancers, and 43.8% of stage 1 bladder cancers, illustrating the potential value of this technology for early cancer detection.
My wife “had” PC. (You are rarely ‘cured.’)
Early detection was a fluke for her. And our PCP drove her through the process. Without that, she’d be dead. As it is…the treatment came close to killing her.
If there are blood tests that can provide even a little edge, the 5 year SEER could get over the 10% rate. That would be worth every dime it costs.
Dog dewormer and Dandelion root kills cancer.
Mom died of Pancreatic Cancer and it scares the crap out of me.
My dear friend died of pancreatic cancer. Age 65.
I’m curious what percentage of doctors will actually administer this test on their average patients.
The part I find most interesting is how they found the markers: they used artificial intelligence to find them.
They did several different genetic testing courses for my wife. Every time they did one she had to sign off that it could be used in research.
One test was about a year after treatment to compare her blood to “her” tumor to see if there was anything hiding in her system. It was very “Star Trek” in its use of genetics and scanning.
One of the things the oncologist told us is that when we were reading stuff on the internet is to not read any articles older than 2 years because the changes in treatments and diagnostics were changing that fast.
From an external point of view it’s fascinating. While you are in the middle of it it’s scary as hell.
If it is that reliable....would be part of routine screening. Has to be proven on a larger scale....but seems theoretically sound...hope someone is funding that instead of sending their money to disney.
IIRC, Steve Jobs also died of PC, although rather late and partially as a consequence of his hippie-induced ignorance.
He and RGB had cancer in the “tail” of the pancreas. That is the most treatable and survivable type. Jobs did “natural” treatment. And, naturally, he died.
The tail version of PC will probably still kill you, but not as quickly as it would in the head. The head sits at the intersection of you digestive “superhighway.” Once the tumor spreads it goes into your liver and digestive system. Most times, the patient feels nothing until this point. That’s why it is so fatal.
A friend from yoga class was cured of pancreatic cancer. Then one week she didn’t show up at all...it came back so fast to kill her people in the class didn’t have time to say goodbye.
I was lucky. They did an abdominal scan on me a couple years ago and my pancreas was swollen and laying on my liver. They knocked me out and did a biopsy thru my esophagus and it came back negative. My gall bladder needed to be removed and after the removal, my pancreas returned to normal.
Sorry, Pancreas Cancer, not prostrate.
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