Blood Test Diagnoses Cancer and Alzheimer's Before Symptoms Appear

A new blood serum diagnostic promises to spot cancer and Alzheimer's disease long before physical symptoms appear. The test, in which specific proteins in a person's blood are examined, is one of the first blood tests to rely on proteomics.

The simple blood test, called BC-SeraPro, may detect breast cancer long before other methods can. The test looks for one of 22 proteins in the blood that are associated with the disease. It has already been launched in 12 Middle Eastern countries.

Developed by Power3 Medical Products (The Woodlands, TX, USA), the BC-SeraPro breast-cancer test is much less invasive than a mammogram or biopsy. A doctor samples a patient's blood and sends it to the laboratory, where scientists search for the irregular proteins that have been identified as early signs of breast cancer. Initially the test will debut in 40 U.S. clinics that treat women at high risk for breast cancer. Women under 40 years of age with high-risk genetic or family factors are expected to benefit the most.

In a blind trial of 60 blood samples provided by Mercy Women's Center (Oklahoma City, OK, USA), the test scored a 97% rate of identifying cancer in samples from diagnosed patients and a 93% rate of correctly identifying healthy women as cancer-free. A second 100-patient trial will be completed by the end of 2007. In comparison, mammograms miss up to 30% of breast cancers, and 75% of the biopsies performed after irregular mammogram results are found to be benign.

The breast cancer test is now validating protein-based tests for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's--the latter for which the only conclusive test is currently either a brain biopsy (which is unethical and therefore never performed) or an autopsy. Among the possible benefits of a proteomic Alzheimer's test would be the ability to definitively separate sufferers from those with other neurodegenerative problems, now a major obstacle to running effective clinical trials of drugs for Alzheimer's.


Related Links:
Power3 Medical Products
Mercy Women's Center