UK researchers have found a link between more than 1,000 blood plasma proteins and 19 different forms of cancer.
The newly identified biomarkers ‘may warn of cancer 7 years before symptoms set in’ raising the possibility of a cancer early warning system’, noted medicalnewstoday.com.
A pair of studies by scientist at Oxford University found a significant number of proteins appeared linked to cancer that were not diagnosed for 7 years after blood samples were taken.
Proteins are everywhere in our bodies: each human carries at least 10,000 different proteins – in blood serum, in muscle, skin, bone, hair, urine and elsewhere.
With so many proteins, so many cancers and the complex path organise of those cancers, the studies – from Oxford Population Health and reported in Nature Communications – ‘represent a first step towards a greater understanding of plasma proteins and cancers’.
With data from the UK by your bank, the first study targeted statistical links between 1463 plasma proteins and 19 types of cancer in 503,317 adults aged 39-73. If found 371 plasma protein markers of cancer risk and, of these, 107 were associated with cancers not formally diagnosed until seven years later;
The second study south associations between 2047 proteins and nine cancer types in 300,000 people – it observed associations between 40 plasma proteins and various commonly occurring cancers.
The authors hope the research may not only assist in detecting and treats and cancers early in their development, but also potentially preventing them from occurring at all.
The first study found potential links between plasma proteins and increased risk of cancers of the liver, digestive and gastrointestinal tracks, and non-Hodgkins lymphoma, as well as colorectal, lung, kidney, brain, stomach, oesophagus, endometrium and blood cancer.
The second study observed ties to triple – Negative breast cancer, bladder cancer, lung cancer and pancreatic cancer.
Study co-Author Dr Joshua Atkins told medicalnewstoday.com: ‘some of the other links are quite interesting, too. Proteins that are not casual for cancer development, but are a consequence of cancer growth, can provide avenues for detecting cancer is at an earlier stage when treatment can be more successful.’
