A single blood test is helping doctors catch head and neck cancer relapse up to nearly 15 months earlier than traditional scans and exams.
The test was developed by Adela, a biotech company founded on a cell-free DNA technology invented at UHN, based on an exciting breakthrough made by researchers at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.
The test works by looking for tiny traces of cancer DNA in the blood, which are shed by cancer cells and are detectable even before symptoms appear.
"Most recurrences are caught after the patient notices symptoms, but this test can find the cancer much sooner," says Dr. Geoffrey Liu, a Senior Scientist and the Director of Applied Molecular Profiling Pharmacogenomic Epidemiologic Laboratory at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and a professor in the Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Toronto (U of T).
In a study involving more than 300 patients, and recently published in The Annals of Oncology, significant differences in recurrence-free survival (RFS) were observed. These patients had been treated for different stages of head and neck cancer, including cancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV).
The technology behind this test was developed from research co-led by Senior Scientists Dr. Daniel De Carvalho and Dr. Scott Bratman at the Princess Margaret and their teams, who discovered that specific DNA changes in cancer cells could be detected in the blood.
This finding paved the way for a more affordable and effective way to monitor cancer.
Adela is now refining this blood test, hoping it can be used to monitor other types of cancer.
"This test has huge potential to help us catch cancer early and improve treatment for patients," says Dr. De Carvalho, who is also a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Neoplasms, a professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at U of T and Chief Scientific Officer of Adela Inc.
Dr. Scott Bratman is an associate professor of Radiation Oncology and Medical Biophysics at the U of T.
This work was supported by the Adela, Inc., the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Head and Neck Translational Program and The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.
