Unlocking the Secrets of Treating Aggressive Cancers

AUSTIN, Texas - Aug. 8, 2024 - PRLog -- New "Liquid Biopsy" Blood Test Could Detect the Presence of Cancer Much Sooner than Conventional Biopsies

When you hear of blood tests screening for the presence of serious diseases, such as cancer, you may be reminded of the now discredited claims by Theranos, a company led by Elizabeth Holmes who is now serving 11 years for securities fraud.

But the underlying concept may yet prove viable.

Next-generation "liquid biopsy" technologies that can identify the fragments of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in blood plasma could become a new screening technique for identifying several types of cancers.

One of the primary challenges is that early-stage cancers only produce very miniscule amounts of ctDNA.

Researchers are working on how to make these ctDNA detection tests more sensitive so they can deploy a universal multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test.

False positives remain a problem.

Recent studies of targeted methylation-based liquid biopsy cancer tests found they produce too many false positives, which could lead to unnecessary, costly, and painful surgical biopsies to rule out a cancer diagnosis.

A solution to this problem may be to combine blood tests with other non-invasive tests, such as urine samples (for bladder cancer) or breast milk (for breast cancer).

Ultimately, if these cancer detection techniques could become more accurate, it could help patients get cancer treatment earlier (known as "stage shift"), which could lead to better health outcomes.

New Strategies to Treat Aggressive, Chemotherapy-Resistant Glioblastoma Brain Cancers

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive brain cancer.

High-profile patients who succumbed to the disease include Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy, as well as President Biden's son, Beau.

Unlike other cancers, patients diagnosed with Glioblastoma (which affects men more than women) often fail to respond to conventional chemotherapy using the drug temozolomide.

The Role of Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase Beta

New research by a team led by Zhi Sheng at Virginia Tech's Fralin Biomedical Research Institute may have identified the issue.

Using brain cultures in the lab, Sheng's team found that blocking the Beta variant of the Phosphoinositide 3 Kinase (PI3K) molecule (which provides a cell signaling pathway in the brain) reduced resistance to the temozolomide chemotherapy drug, which blocks the growth of cancer cells.

The reason why phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase beta regulates the efficacy of temozolomide (unlike the non-beta variant) is unknown, but Sheng's team is already working to understand this relationship.

If workable clinical therapies can be developed based on these insights, patients with Glioblastoma may have new important treatment options in the future.

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