Early cancer detection breakthrough

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  Early cancer detection breakthrough

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• The story: Some Indian scientists claim to have achieved a breakthrough in early cancer diagnosis, with a discovery rooted in a contentious segment of cellular biology. If validated by additional trials, this holds vast market potential in a lucrative branch of therapeutic medicine.
• What it does: The discovery enables the detection of cancer and the stage the disease is in from a simple blood test with virtually 100% accuracy, as per the results of a 1,000-person clinical study. The paper was published in Stem Cell Reviews and Reports, a quarterly journal published by Berlin-based Springer Science + Business Media. 

1. The technique was able to identify 25 different kinds of cancer, and could detect cancer before the onset of tumour development. 
2. As cancer treatments have advanced, deaths from the illness in its early stages have dramatically declined, and a diagnostic tool that can flag cancers early could become a boon to millions.
3. The test, known as HrC, has been co-developed by Mumbai-based biotechnology firm Epigeneres Biotechnology Pvt. Ltd and Singapore-based Tzar Labs Pte Ltd. Mumbai-based nanotech scientist Vinay Kumar Tripathi and his family are majority shareholders in both companies.
4. The firm claimed that it can now early-detect all types of cancer, even before tumour formation, from a simple blood test. It’s also the first prognostic test for cancer in the world. The tests can not only tell if a peron doesn’t have cancer, but can also safely rule out the risk of cancer for the following year if the HrC marker fell in the safe zone. 

• A global scourge: The company aims to bring the test kits to the market in India soon, after securing regulatory approvals. The burden of cancer on the world is immense. The disease accounts for one in every six deaths worldwide, according to the American Cancer Society. It kills more people every year than HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. In 2017, an estimated 17 million cases of cancer were diagnosed, and 9.5 million people died of the disease. By 2040, the figures are expected to reach 27.5 million new cases and 16.3 million cancer deaths.
• Understanding cancer: Stem cells are valued in medicine for their ability to create their own copies as well as to turn into other kinds of cells. Stem cells in the bone marrow, for instance, can give rise to red or white blood cells and platelets. These have found applications in a growing field known as regenerative medicine. Among stem cells, the most valued are those with a property known as pluripotency, the ability to turn into any kind of cell in the body. If you have stem cells that can turn into any kind of cells, you could theoretically cure a range of ailments linked to tissue and organ damage. This potential has spawned a massive industry globally around stem cell banks and therapies, although treatments with regulatory approvals are few.

1. So far, two kinds of cells have been acknowledged to possess pluripotency. These are embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs). The scientists who discovered IPSCs were awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2012.
2. A third kind of cells has been claimed to possess pluripotency and has remained the subject of scientific controversy since 2006, when they were first isolated. These are called Very Small Embryonic Like stem cells, or VSELs.
3. The latest discovery is rooted in these cells, which have proved notoriously difficult to isolate and study. At a fundamental level, the discovery is akin to finding a signature for cancer in the blood, more specifically in peripheral blood, which is that portion of the blood that circulates in the body, as opposed to being sequestered within organs.
4. The team found two things. Firstly, in the peripheral blood of patients with cancer, a large number of VSELs were observed compared with those without the illness. Secondly, the expression of a transcription factor within the cell, known as Oct4a, varied, corresponding to the stages of cancer. A transcription factor is a protein that regulates the rate of transcription of genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA. VSELs are difficult to isolate because they measure 3-5 microns, which makes them virtually indistinguishable from cellular debris. A micron, or micrometre, is one-millionth of a metre.

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