New technology can detect tiny ovarian tumors

MIT:  Most ovarian cancer is diagnosed at such late stages that patients’ survival rates are poor. However, if the cancer is detected earlier, five-year survival rates can be greater than 90 percent. Now, MIT engineers have developed a far more sensitive way to reveal ovarian tumors: In tests in mice, they were able to detect tumors composed of nodules smaller than 2 millimeters in diameter. In humans, that could translate to tumor detection about five months earlier than is possible with existing blood tests, the researchers say.

Biomarker tests in breast cancer: decision on chemotherapy remains difficult

IQWiGThe German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) investigated the benefit of biomarker tests to support the decision for or against adjuvant systemic chemotherapy in certain breast cancer patients, that is, women with primary hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer and up to 3 affected lymph nodes. When the Institute presented its preliminary report in November 2015, the evidence was inadequate to prove the benefit or harm of such tests. However, the results of further relevant studies had been announced for the beginning of 2016. Following a request by the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), IQWiG did not immediately start preparing the final report after the scientific debate on the preliminary report, but waited for these results.

New Biomarkers Might Help Personalize Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Treatment

UCSD: Metastatic colorectal cancer patients tend to live longer when they respond to the first line of chemotherapy their doctors recommend. To better predict how patients will respond to chemotherapy drugs before they begin treatment, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine conducted a proof-of-principle study with a small group of metastatic colorectal cancer patients. The results, published June 17 in PLOS ONE, revealed two genes that could help physicians make more informed treatment decisions for patients with this disease.

New Biomarker Identified in Women with Mental Illness

UCSD: Psychiatric disorders can be difficult to diagnose because clinicians must rely upon interpreted clues, such as a patient’s behaviors and feelings. For the first time, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report identifying a biological marker: the over-production of specific genes that could be a diagnostic indicator of mental illness in female psychiatric patients.

More Ovarian Cancer Detected if Biomarker Velocities Are Scrutinized

ClinicalOmics: A single biomarker plus a fixed threshold may equal a missed diagnosis—actually, a great many missed diagnoses. But fixed thresholds aren’t inevitable. For example, a serum biomarker used to screen women for ovarian cancer can yield more accurate results if it is assessed serially. This biomarker, called cancer antigen 125 (CA125), can detect cancer in 86% of women with invasive epithelial ovarian cancer (iEOC)—provided the pattern of CA125 concentration changes over time is assessed. If, however, CA125 figures in a simplistic “less than/greater than” metric, screen-detected cancers are just 41% or 48%, according to data from clinical trials or clinical practice, respectively.

Discovery of biomarker offers hope for brain cancer patients

UNSW researchers have discovered a biomarker that can help predict if standard cancer therapy will extend the life of patients with malignant brain tumours. The discovery means doctors can now better target treatment for patients not sensitive to standard chemotherapy or radiotherapy.  The finding may also eventually lead to new approaches for extending life and improving the quality of life for people diagnosed with brain cancer. The highly aggressive brain tumours, known as glioblastomas (GBM), are considered incurable and have an average survival of less than 15 months. Approximately 1800 Australians are diagnosed every year with GBM.