By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Columnist
WEDNESDAY, June 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Scientists report they’ve found DNA from head and neck cancer tumors in patients’ blood and saliva tests, a development that potentially could lead to early diagnosis of these malignancies.
In spite of the fact that not yet ready for real-world utilize, such tests seem moreover help in arranging and observing treatment, the Johns Hopkins College analysts said.
“Tumor DNA has potential to be utilized as a marker for screening, early discovery, monitoring amid treatment and observation after cancer treatment,” said lead researcher Dr. Nishant Agrawal, an relate teacher of otolaryngology head and neck surgery.
“In the close future, there will be a noninvasive test that can be utilized to monitor cancer,” Agrawal said.
This preliminary consider involved fewer than 100 patients. “More ponder is fundamental to validate the discoveries in larger bunches of patients and sound people, make strides the test execution and characterize the exact indications for the test,” he added.
Agrawal said the test is exceptionally precise, identifying DNA shed by cancer tumors 100 percent of the time and ruling out cancer 96 percent of the time.
The goal is to use the test to monitor cancer patients for determination and/or recurrence of their malady, Agrawal said. “Another objective is to utilize the test for screening to find head and neck cancers in the general populace or high-risk populations,” he included.
Currently, the test is for investigate purposes as it were, Agrawal said. “Once the test is approved and affirmed for clinical use, a positive test would lead to additional demonstrative tests and treatment,” he said.
The report was published June 24 within the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Major hazard variables for head and neck cancers are liquor, tobacco — counting chewing tobacco — and HPV (human papillomavirus) disease, the analysts said. These cancers occur within the mouth, including the lips, front of the tongue, cheeks and gums, and within the back of the throat and voice box.
For the ponder, Agrawal’s group got saliva tests from 93 patients recently diagnosed with head and neck cancer or with repetitive cancer. Forty-seven also gave blood tests.
The researchers found tumor DNA within the saliva of 71 patients (76 percent) and within the blood of 41 patients (87 percent). In 45 of the 47 who who gave both blood and spit, examiners were able to identify tumor DNA in at least one of the liquids.
Particularly, Agrawal and colleagues searched blood and spit for traces of HPV, which accounts for a developing number of these cancers. For cancers not related to HPV, they looked for changes in specific cancer-related genes.
Breaking down the comes about, Agrawal’s team found saliva tests were way better at distinguishing cancers within the mouth, while blood tests recognized more cancers within the throat. Combining the two might help identify cancers anywhere in this region, Agrawal’s said.
In the event that the test were to gotten to be routinely used, Agrawal expects it would taken a toll a few hundred dollars, although he’d like to see it priced at less than $50 and given by specialists and dental specialists.
Dr. Leonard Lichtenfeld, agent chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said on the off chance that this test and others like it dish out, it will be a major contribution to finding and treating cancers early when they are most reparable.
“But this is not something that’s ready however to be utilized within the clinic,” he said.
Lichtenfeld said this approach — seeking out for cancer markers in blood — may also help identify other cancers. In any case, analysts first have to be compelled to discover the specific DNA that different cancers shed, he said.
“No two cancers have the same DNA mutations,” Lichtenfeld said. “It may well be possible to have blood tests that identify these particular anomalies.”
This consider is an early step, Lichtenfeld added, “but a step that shows we are able to make this happen.”