Key points from article :
Thrive Earlier Detection, a Third Rock Ventures-backed startup, is betting on CancerSEEK.
CancerSEEK is a blood test-in-development designed to sniff out a wide variety of cancer.
Done by interrogating genomic mutations in circulating tumor DNA, also protein markers.
Trial named DETECT-A evaluated blood test in 9,911 women aged 65-75 with no cancer history.
96 cases of cancer were identified among participants within 12 months of enrollment.
26 cancers detected — 17 at an early stage, of which 12 were able to be surgically removed.
Standard screening methods like mammography, colonoscopy, pinpointed another 24 cancers.
Remaining 46 cases were not first detected by either blood testing or by standard screening.
Overall, specificity of the test came in at 99.6% — “there were almost no false positives” .
Granted FDA’s breakthrough device status, it is gearing up to conduct registrational study.
If approved, test would be priced “in the hundreds of dollars commercially".
