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In Cancer Study, New Blood, Magnet Test Detected Tumors Sooner

Date: Tues, 14 Apr 1998 11:27:17 -0600

From: "Larry Clapp" <lclapp@prostate90.com>

Associated Press
April 14, 1998

A highly sensitive new blood test could help doctors find tumors sooner, researchers say.

"The idea is to detect cancers earlier, when they're more treatable," said Dr. Jonathan Uhr of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

How much earlier a tumor might be discovered isn't known, Uhr said. But Dr. Emilian Racila, one of his co-researchers, noted that some breast cancers can grow for years before becoming visible via mammography.

The new test, which uses magnets to concentrate the cancer cells from blood and lasers to observe them, is reported in a paper in Monday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The test has been used on patients with breast and prostate cancers. Tests on other tumors are planned.

Dr. Carleton Stewart of Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N. Y., who did not participate in the research, termed the results "extremely positive."

He said similar research is under way at his hospital with similar results.

"It is not only a means of early detection and monitoring, but it can have a significant impact on treatment plans for the patient. If one knows that the patient has circulating (cancer) cells, they may require a different kind of treatment than one who doesn't," he explained.

While results of the new test have been encouraging, Uhr cautioned that "a year or two of further study" is needed to determine if the test will help individual patients.

Doctors have known that tumors shed cells into the bloodstream, but it takes many such cells to be detected. The new test lets doctors detect a single cancer cell in a small blood sample.

Tiny iron particles coated with an enzyme that attaches itself to cancer cells are placed in the blood sample. Magnets are then used to concentrate the cancer cells, which then can be studied.

The test locates epithelial cells, a type of cell that forms the skin, glands and other tissues but is rarely present in the bloodstream.

Breast and prostate cancers tend to grow slowly but shed these cells from their early development, Racila explained. While a breast tumor might need 100 million cells before it could be found in a mammogram, a tumor of 1 million cells could shed enough epithelial cells into the blood to be detected, Racila said.

The researchers found that blood samples from 13 healthy people averaged just 1.5 epithelial cells per sample. By comparison, 14 patients with breast cancer that had not spread averaged 15.9 epithelial cells; five with cancer that had spread locally averaged 47.4 cells; and 11 patients whose cancer had spread to other parts of the body averaged 122 cells. They also tested three prostate patients, who averaged 16 epithelial cancer cells per blood sample.

Besides offering the hope of earlier detection for these cancers, Uhr said the researchers want to see if the test works for cancers of the colon and intestinal tract, which are harder to detect.

(c) 1998 Chicago Tribune