Blood test can screen for more than 20 cancers
Results support further work on the DNA methylation approach, says researcher
A blood test in development can screen for more than 20 types of cancer with a high degree of accuracy, according to new research.
The test, developed by GRAIL Inc, uses next-generation sequencing technology to detect DNA methylation patterns associated with cancer in cell-free DNA.
Lead author Dr Geoffrey Oxnard, from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said the team’s previous work indicated that methylation-based assays outperformed traditional DNA-sequencing approaches in detecting multiple types of cancer in blood samples.
“The results of the new study demonstrate that such assays are a feasible way of screening people for cancer,” Dr Oxnard said.
