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CANCER SCREENING

Combining liquid biopsies and PET-CT for early cancer detection

Nature Medicine volume 26, pages 1010–1011 (2020)Cite this article

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A simple blood test performed alongside PET-CT imaging facilitates early cancer detection in asymptomatic women.

The early detection of cancer is an enduring ambition for cancer diagnostics. Recently, a number of a blood-based tests, referred to as ‘liquid biopsies’, that can detect molecular alterations associated with solid tumors have rapidly entered into development1. A minimally invasive blood test that can detect cancer in its early stages, when it is the most treatable (such as through curative surgery), has enormous potential to transform the landscape of cancer care and improve survival outcomes. Recently in Science, this objective was embarked upon by Lennon and colleagues to determine if prospective liquid-biopsy testing can be safely incorporated into routine clinical care to facilitate early cancer detection2.

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Fig. 1: A liquid-biopsy test was assessed in a cohort of women with no history of cancer in the DETECT-A study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia

    Stephen Q. Wong & Sarah-Jane Dawson

  2. The Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Stephen Q. Wong & Sarah-Jane Dawson

  3. Centre for Cancer Research, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Sarah-Jane Dawson

Authors
  1. Stephen Q. Wong
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  2. Sarah-Jane Dawson
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Correspondence to Sarah-Jane Dawson.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Wong, S.Q., Dawson, SJ. Combining liquid biopsies and PET-CT for early cancer detection. Nat Med 26, 1010–1011 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0970-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0970-9

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