Tumors can grow for 10 years or longer before currently available blood tests will detect them, a new mathematical model developed by Stanford University School of Medicine scientists indicates...."The study's results can be viewed as both bad and good news," said [the lead author of the study]. The bad news, [he] said, is that by the time a tumor reaches a detectable size using today's available blood tests, it is likely to have metastasized to other areas of the body, making it much more deadly than if it had been caught early on. "The good news is that we have, potentially, 10 or even 20 years to find the tumor before it reaches this size, if only we can improve our blood-based methods of detecting tumors....Some biomarkers [used to detect tumors] may be made predominantly by tumor cells, while others exclusively by them. Either way, these substances can be measured in the blood as proxies for a tumor....Some biomarkers are in wide use today. One is the well-known PSA, for prostate cancer. Another is CA125, for ovarian cancer. But these and other currently used blood tests for cancer biomarkers weren't specifically developed for early detection, and are generally more effective for relatively noninvasive monitoring of the progress of late-stage tumors or their response to treatment....In the last decade, many potential new biomarkers for different cancers have been identified.....But validating a biomarker in large clinical trials is a long, expensive process. So it is imperative to determine as efficiently as possible which, among many potential tumor biomarkers, is the best prospective candidate. "This model could take some of the guesswork out of it," [the study author said]. "It can be applied to all kinds of solid cancers and prospective biomarkers as long as we have enough data on, for instance, how much of it a tumor cell secretes per hour, how long the biomarker can circulate before it's degraded and how quickly tumor cells divide.
For me, the key piece of information here relates to the discovery and validation of new tumor biomarkers. We should now be emphasizing the earlier detection of tumors that the body may have been harboring for ten years. Using the mathematical model referred to above, it may be possible to sort out the biomarker candidates that are secreted earlier by the body and would therefore be of the most value in diagnostic medicine. I discussed the "cancer secretome" and the search for new biomarkers in a note several years ago (see: Researchers Analyze the Cancer Secretome for Clues to New Tumor Biomarkers ). Understanding the cancer secretome is critical for all such research.
A recent article about guidelines for earlier cancer detection was highly relevant in terms of the future development of new serum biomarkers (see: Guidelines For Earlier Cancer Detection Established By New Stanford Mode l). The article reviewed the progress on a mathematical model relating to tumor growth and the secretion of tumor marker that I blogged about more than three years ago (see: Correlation Between Tumor Size and Serum Biomarker Levels ). Below is an excerpt from it
Tumors can grow for 10 years or longer before currently available blood tests will detect them, a new mathematical model developed by Stanford University School of Medicine scientists indicates...."The study's results can be viewed as both bad and good news," said [the lead author of the study]. The bad news, [he] said, is that by the time a tumor reaches a detectable size using today's available blood tests, it is likely to have metastasized to other areas of the body, making it much more deadly than if it had been caught early on. "The good news is that we have, potentially, 10 or even 20 years to find the tumor before it reaches this size, if only we can improve our blood-based methods of detecting tumors.... Some biomarkers [used to detect tumors] may be made predominantly by tumor cells, while others exclusively by them. Either way, these substances can be measured in the blood as proxies for a tumor....Some biomarkers are in wide use today. One is the well-known PSA, for prostate cancer. Another is CA125, for ovarian cancer. But these and other currently used blood tests for cancer biomarkers weren't specifically developed for early detection, and are generally more effective for relatively noninvasive monitoring of the progress of late-stage tumors or their response to treatment....In the last decade, many potential new biomarkers for different cancers have been identified.....But validating a biomarker in large clinical trials is a long, expensive process. So it is imperative to determine as efficiently as possible which, among many potential tumor biomarkers, is the best prospective candidate. "This model could take some of the guesswork out of it," [the study author said]. "It can be applied to all kinds of solid cancers and prospective biomarkers as long as we have enough data on, for instance, how much of it a tumor cell secretes per hour, how long the biomarker can circulate before it's degraded and how quickly tumor cells divide.For me, the key piece of information here relates to the discovery and validation of new tumor biomarkers. We should now be emphasizing the earlier detection of tumors that the body may have been harboring for ten years. Using the mathematical model referred to above, it may be possible to sort out the biomarker candidates that are secreted earlier by the body and would therefore be of the most value in diagnostic medicine. I discussed the "cancer secretome" and the search for new biomarkers in a note several years ago (see: Researchers Analyze the Cancer Secretome for Clues to New Tumor Biomarkers ). Understanding the cancer secretome is critical for all such research.