Release date: 2016-03-23
In the future, cancer testing may no longer require surgical biopsy or biopsy. A new blood test called liquid biopsy is changing the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. This technology was named the top ten in 2015 by MIT. One of the breakthroughs.
Lu Yuming, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who developed liquid biopsy technology, said in an interview that even if the market has a potential of $40 billion in the future, it is no exaggeration. "There are 25,000 genes in human body, and many cancers will have mutations. The understanding is the future development potential of this market."
Inspiration from boiling instant noodles
There are hundreds of millions of cells in the human body. When the cells die, they release DNA into the blood. A new technical method called liquid biopsy is to find cancer mutations in these cellular DNA that are freed between blood to determine cancer and severity.
Lu Yuming is the pioneer of non-invasive prenatal screening technology. As early as 1997, his research team found that free fetal DNA was present in maternal plasma, and this study produced a safer and simpler method for testing Down's syndrome. .
Lu Yuming said that he was inspired by the boiling instant noodles. After trying to boil the plasma, he found the DNA of the baby floating outside the cell. "In the past, the puncture was used for the examination. In this way, there is one for every 200 times. The baby was aborted. I was trying to find the baby's cells from the blood cells of the pregnant woman. But after 8 years of unsuccessful, I was inspired by the instant noodles a few weeks before returning to Hong Kong. I accidentally discovered the floating outside the cell. DNA".
Finding DNA that floats outside the blood and judging it is a new technological innovation. It can not only find the baby's DNA in pregnant women, but also find the DNA of cancer cells withered from these blood. If you can find these DNAs It can be judged whether the person has cancer or not, and the concentration can also determine the severity of the cancer.
Lu said that at present, this method can be applied to liver cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, fibrocarcinoma, etc. "The number of cancers that can be detected now should have exceeded 10".
The next stage of cancer detection
These changes mean that the way to test cancer with surgical biopsy or minimally invasive puncture will go into another phase.
"After all, the past intervention tests have certain risks, such as may cause other parts to be infected, and it is convenient to use new methods." Lu Yuming introduced, for example, when targeting mutations, it can quickly determine whether the treatment is effective, and track tumors. The development of the treatment program, "for patients who have undergone organ transplantation, through monitoring, if the DNA indicators of organ donors in the blood increase, the possibility of rejection is higher, such as patients suffering from car accidents, After the bone, by monitoring, the higher the DNA index, the more likely he is to die."
Lu Yuming cited lung cancer as an example. "Half of the patients with non-small cell lung cancer will have EGFR mutations. Now there is a drug that can control the disease with a success rate of 90%, but the price of this drug is very expensive, and it needs 10,000 to 20,000 a month. Yuan, before I could only try the drug first, but now I can do a liquid biopsy. If there is a mutation in this gene, then the drug will have a higher success rate."
This new technology can be used not only in the detection of cancer patients, but also as a physical examination item to check the health of the human body. "In the blood test, we can even see the percentage of DNA from different organs, such as liver cells 20%. 60% of blood cells, by knowing the proportion of normal healthy people, you can determine whether this person is healthy or not, so as to understand the disease early," Lu Yuming told reporters. Without this test, we may only be able to make a judgment after seeing the symptoms.
Taking the common nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Asia as an example, Lu Yuming exemplified that about 75% of patients were found to have three or four stages. Most of them found lymph nodes in the neck before they went to the hospital for examination. Only 50% to 60% of these patients can survive for a long time after treatment, but if they can be found early in the first phase, the long-term survival rate can reach 95%. A liquid biopsy can determine whether a person has nasopharyngeal cancer by detecting whether a virus's DNA is present in plasma.
Now Lu Yuming is launching a nasopharyngeal cancer test in Hong Kong. It plans to cover 20,000 Hong Kong citizens aged 40 to 60 to learn more about the accuracy of this test.
How many hurdles will the market break?
How big is the market for liquid biopsy? Jay Flatley, CEO of sequencing giant Illumina, said in an interview that the market for liquid biopsy is at least $40 billion. He believes that this technology may be the most exciting breakthrough in the field of cancer diagnosis.
The non-invasive prenatal screening for commercialization has been implemented, and the technology used is similar to that of liquid biopsy. It has only been developed for several years and the market has begun to erupt. A research report by Guosen Securities believes that the scale of this market in 2015 is about 1 billion yuan, and the current market penetration rate is only about 7%. Therefore, in the next 2 to 3 years, it will enter the growth period from the introduction period.
Lu Yuming believes that the market space for liquid biopsy cancer is much larger than that of non-invasive prenatal screening. "There are 25,000 genes in human body, and many cancers will be mutated. The understanding of genes is the future development potential of this market."
In Lu Yuming's view, it is no exaggeration to predict a liquid biopsy with a market size of 40 billion US dollars. "Non-creative prenatal screening products were launched in 2011, and now 90% of the countries are using them. Many companies have seen success, so many companies I think that this technology is very promising now."
In the future, to achieve an outbreak, this technology is currently facing some problems, the first is price. Lu Yuming said that in the current genetic testing, it is expensive to see the whole gene map, so some companies on the market will look for dozens of genes, but this method can not see all the genes, there are certain loopholes, the current proposal is Look at the whole genetic map first, and find out where there are mutations. The second test then assigns a few genes to see, so the cost can be reduced. However, in the future, if the cost is really reduced, there is still a need for advances in sequencing technology. "Now the technology in the field of genetic testing is blooming, and it is believed that cost reduction is also a future trend."
At present, he has relevant testing technology. Chen Yingjie, a product manager of Da’an Gene Mass Gene Products, said in an interview with the “First Financial Daily†reporter that the level of ctDNA has very large individual differences and is difficult to detect. When the tumor volume is still small, it is especially obvious. Therefore, this technology is not suitable for early screening of tumors, but mainly used for cancer treatment and rehabilitation during the monitoring of treatment effects and whether or not there is a reference for the transfer. The market price ranges from 10,000 to tens of thousands. It is used for breast cancer, lung cancer, and adenocarcinoma, but it is worth mentioning that it is not currently a formal clinical project.
Chen Yingjie said that this new technology still needs to be improved. For example, because the content of the test is free tumor DNA in human blood, the DNA released from the lesion to the blood will be very different at different stages and times. The half-life of ctDNA is only two hours, so even if the same person has different DNA detections at different times, "sometimes, taking 10 ml of blood, only a few DNA molecules can be detected, sometimes completely Less than that, this means that multiple checks are required at different times to produce a valid capture.
The current research direction is still how to ensure the sensitivity and stability of the test. "Liquid biopsy can more fully reflect the characteristics of the tumor compared to traditional tissue biopsy techniques." Moreover, repeated non-invasive liquid biopsies after a period of time can also provide information on whether anticancer treatments work, or whether tumors are resistant or not. This is significant for patients in the treatment phase. â€
Medical chain
Source: First Financial Daily
Food additives refer to chemical synthetic or natural substances added to food for the purpose of improving the quality, color, aroma and taste of food, as well as for the need of preservative and processing technology. Due to the rapid development of the food industry, food additives have become an important part of the modern food industry, and has become an important driving force of technological progress and technological innovation in the food industry. In the use of food additives, in addition to ensuring their due function and role, the most important thing is to ensure the safety and health of food.
Supplement Ingredients,Gamma Aminobutyric Acid,Alpha Gpc Powder,Organic Spirulina Powder
Xi'an Double H Health Technology Co., Ltd , https://www.xadoubleh.com