A landmark study published in the American Association of Cancer Research's (AACR) prestigious journal 'Cancer Prevention Research' has shown that it is possible to identify healthy individuals with higher risk of cancer based on a simple blood draw. The study reports that seemingly normal, asymptomatic middle-aged men and women with no history of cancer but having detectable clusters of Circulating Tumor Cells (abbreviated as 'C-ETACs') in their blood have a 230 times higher one year risk of developing cancer as compared to individuals where such clusters were undetectable in blood samples.

In this multi-institutional international collaborative study led by Datar Cancer Genetics, the investigators screened more than 10,000 asymptomatic individuals for detection of C-ETACs and subsequently followed up on these individuals over a period of one year. Simultaneously, blood from more than 4000 cancer patients with various malignancies ('solid organ cancers') was also studied. The study findings revealed that C-ETACs were almost invariably found in cancer patients (> 90%) but were extremely rare (<5%) in normal individuals with no diagnosis or symptom of cancer. Subsequently, over a one-year follow-up, 3.475% of C-ETAC positive normal individuals were diagnosed with various cancers as opposed to 0.015% of C-ETAC negative individuals thus yielding a 230-fold increase in one year risk of cancer diagnosis.

The study is significant because early detection of cancer and risk stratification of seemingly normal individuals remains an ongoing public health challenge. 9.6 million individuals worldwide succumb to cancer each year mainly because of late detection and even the World Health Organization in its 2014 Report has identified early detection as its major objective.

The C-ETAC detection technology and the test are developed by Datar Cancer Genetics using an innovative approach for selective destruction of non-cancer cells in the blood for harvesting C-ETACs. The accuracy of the test is 95.6% and covers more than 20 cancers including Breast, Lung, Ovarian, Stomach, Pancreatic, Colon and Prostate.

Commenting upon the results, Dr Tim Crook, Medical Oncologist at Broomfield Hospital, UK and one of the authors of the paper said that 'C-ETACs are virtually a non-invasive micro-biopsy that will enable high confidence screening and risk stratification of seemingly normal individuals. The technology represents a major advancement for early detection of cancer. The large size of the study is significant.'

The research is published online (https://doi.org/10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-20-0322) .

About Datar Cancer Genetics

Datar Cancer Genetics is a leading cancer research corporation specialising in non-invasive techniques for better diagnosis, treatment decisions, and management of cancer. The Company's state-of-the-art cancer research centre is ILAC - NABL, ISO, CAP and CLIA – USA accredited.