Cancer can be ‘predicted’ years before symptoms appear – Cambridge

Illustrative photo: angellodeco/DEPOSITPHOTOS

Scientists have said that cancer is possible diagnose years before the first symptoms and tumor growth.

Tests that can detect early changes in cells can help start treatment before symptoms appear.

This was announced at the recently opened Early Cancer Institute at the University of Cambridge, reports The Guardian.

The Institute has already proposed options for determining susceptibility to various types of oncology, including esophageal cancer.

What does the Cambridge Early Cancer Institute say?

Scientists already know that people can have “precancerous conditions”, when the disease remains “in a state of waiting” for a long time. Institute of early cancerwhich has already received £11 million from an anonymous donor, began looking for ways to fight tumors before symptoms appear.

Employees of the institution began to research different types of cancer. Scientists have been looking for a way to detect cancer susceptibility using tests that can be administered to large numbers of people.

“The latency of cancer development can last for years, sometimes decades, before the disease suddenly manifests itself in a patient. Then doctors find that they are trying to treat a tumor that has already spread throughout the body. We need another approach that can identify a person at risk cancer” – says the director of the institute, Rebecca Fitzgerald.

In particular, Fitzgerald and her team proposed using a specially designed “cytosponge” – a kind of capsule sponge for collecting cell samples – to reveal a predisposition to esophageal cancer.

The sponge is swallowed like a pill, after which it expands in the stomach, and then – is drawn up the esophagus. After that, the scientists have to study the collected cells.

The risk of developing esophageal cancer will be indicated by cells that contain the TFF3 protein (it is found only in precancerous cells). Scientists say that this test can be carried out simply and on a large scale.

“The Director of the Institute, Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, pioneered the capsule sponge, a new test that can detect ten times more patients with heartburn and Barrett’s esophaguswhich is a harbinger of esophageal cancer.

The device aims to detect disease when it is more easily treatable, thus helping more people survive.”– says the website of the institute.

Another approach offered by the institute is to analyze blood samples to detect leukemia. Researchers have already analyzed blood samples from women who were screened for ovarian cancer. Then these samples received another purpose.

With their help, the researchers recorded the difference in indicators between those women who were diagnosed with blood cancer 10 or 20 years after donating blood and those who did not.

“We discovered that clear genetic changes occur in a person’s blood more than 10 years before he begins to show symptoms of leukemia.

There is a large window of opportunity that can be used for intervention and treatment that will reduce the chances of getting cancer.”said Jamie Blundell, head of the research team at the institute.

Harveer Dev, head of a prostate cancer research group, follows a similar strategy.

His team is currently developing biomarkers that will allow better identification of men from the “risk zone”.

“Our pilot data suggest that these tests may be much better than existing prostate-specific antigen tests and will be critical in identifying patients with prostate cancer.” said Dev.

Cancer develops in stages, so if “suspicious” cells are detected, the disease can be stopped or slowed down, scientists emphasize. It will also help detect cancer in the early stages, when there are more chances of successful treatment.

We will remind you that earlier in the USA scientists discovered a method that allows you to cut off the supply of “fuel” for cancer.

We also explained what screenings should be done for early diagnosis of various types of cancer.