Proteins in the blood could indicate signs of cancer more than seven years before it is diagnosed, according to research by the University of Oxford.
The study found proteins linked to 19 types of cancers, which could be used to detect cancer much earlier and potentially provide new treatment options.
Dr Keren Papier, senior nutritional epidemiologist at Oxford Population Health at the University of Oxford and joint first author of the study, said: ‘To save more lives from cancer, we need to better understand what happens at the earliest stages of the disease … [and] how the proteins in our blood can affect our risk of cancer. Now we need to study these proteins in depth to see which ones could be reliably used for prevention.’
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Funded by Cancer Research UK, the study looked at blood samples from more than 44,000 people in the UK Biobank, including over 4,900 people who subsequently had a cancer diagnosis.
The team used proteomics — the study of proteins to help learn how cancer develops and spreads — to analyse 1,463 proteins from a single sample of blood from each person. They then compared how these differed between people who were later diagnosed with cancer and those who were not, identifying which may be linked to the disease.
They found more than 600 proteins in the blood were linked to cancer types including breast, bowel and prostate. Of these, 107 proteins were associated with cancers diagnosed more than seven years after the patient’s blood sample was collected.
However, the scientists noted that while altering these proteins may increase or decrease the chances of someone developing cancer, in some cases it may lead to unintended side-effects.
‘Further research is vital to uncover which are the most reliable ones to test for, what tests could be developed to detect the proteins in a clinic, and which drugs could target the proteins,’ they said.