Now, a team led by Gonçalo Bernardes, head of the Translational Chemical Biology Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), has developed a test that can detect early-stage solid tumors with just a blood sample. In addition, the test also provides information relevant to the choice of treatment. The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Studying the proteins that react to cancer

To achieve this early detection, the team led by the Portuguese researcher focused the test not on the markers produced by the tumor, but on the body’s defensive reaction to the cancer. Since the 19th century, it has been known that the emergence of cancer cells causes changes in the immune system. It was also known that these changes are more intense in cancer’s earliest stages, but they have never been used for diagnosis. The new study focuses on them, specifically on the changes in blood proteins derived from cancer’s disruption of the immune system.