The new technology breaks through the bottleneck of low free DNA of liver cancer cells in the peripheral blood, and realizes-
only one tube of blood is needed, and the missed detection rate of early liver cancer is reduced by 50%
Liver cancer is a major public health problem in our country. More than 300,000 people die from it every year.
New cases of liver cancer in my country account for about half of the world every year.
At the same time, there are still close to 100 million hepatitis virus carriers in my country, and close to 30 million liver disease patients, all of whom are at high risk of liver cancer.
How to carry out early screening and early treatment of these high-risk groups has become an urgent problem in the field of public health.
On November 27, the demonstration project of "Early Screening and Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Liver Cancer" jointly initiated by the National Cancer Center, Huishan District People's Government in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, and the leading domestic precision medicine company Genetron Health was officially launched.
This brings new hope for early screening and early treatment of high-risk groups of liver cancer in my country.
The 5-year survival rate of patients with early liver cancer can reach 90%
As a malignant tumor with high morbidity and mortality in my country, liver cancer has been ranked in the top 5 malignant tumors and the second in death.
In the past, due to the lack of reliable screening technology for a long time, most patients were already in the middle and late stages once they were diagnosed, thus missing the prime time for treatment.
"Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) plus B-ultrasound is the'gold standard' for the clinical diagnosis of liver cancer. People at high risk of liver cancer usually go to the hospital for an examination every 3-6 months." said Wang Sizhen, co-founder and CEO of Genetron Health. The specificity of the method is excellent, but the sensitivity is only over 60%, especially in the detection of early liver cancer.
Li Ni, deputy director of the Cancer Early Diagnosis and Treatment Office of the National Cancer Center, said: “Due to technological limitations, we will miss many early patients. Maybe a patient’s AFP is normal, and B-ultrasound is also normal, but he is one year old. Later, he got liver cancer, even in the advanced stage, because liver cancer develops very fast. This urgently needs more sensitive technology to solve the bottlenecks and difficulties in liver cancer screening."
According to statistics, the 5-year survival rate of liver cancer patients in my country is only 12.1%, while the 5-year survival rate of patients with liver cancer detected early can reach 90%.
According to a study by the National Cancer Center, early cancer screening can reduce mortality by more than 40%, and diagnosis and treatment costs for early cases can be reduced by about 70% compared with advanced patients.
New technology breaks the bottleneck of early liver cancer screening
Professionals claim that DNA mutation, DNA methylation and protein expression are three types of effective markers for early cancer detection.
Due to the low content of free DNA in the blood, it is often not possible to detect at the same time.
Genetron Health's self-developed technology can simultaneously detect various methylation and gene mutation information of free DNA in peripheral blood through the use of capture methods, amplification methods and other solutions, breaking the bottleneck of early cancer screening.
This new technology for early detection of liver cancer can detect about 50% more liver cancer patients than traditional methods by drawing a tube of blood, greatly reducing the missed detection rate.
“Previously, together with the National Cancer Center, we conducted a prospective cohort study of 4,500 Australian anti-positive patients. The study showed that the early screening technology based on liquid biopsy for cancer achieved 92% sensitivity and 93% specificity, while ultrasound The combined alpha-fetoprotein test has achieved 67% sensitivity and 99% specificity." Wang Sizhen told reporters.
In 2019, the research results on early liver cancer screening completed by the National Cancer Center, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Genetron Health Sciences were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The results were approved this year to be included in the National Science and Technology Major Project "Early Screening of High-incidence Malignant Tumors" Research project of diagnostic technology research and application".
Include high-risk groups as early as possible
To reduce the incidence and mortality of cancer, the most important strategy is to shift the threshold of prevention and treatment-early screening, early diagnosis and early treatment.
The “Early Screening and Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Liver Cancer” demonstration project launched in Huishan, Wuxi this time will take Huishan District as a fulcrum to achieve full coverage of liver cancer screening for high-risk populations in Wuxi, and gradually build Wuxi into a national low Demonstration city for comprehensive prevention and control of liver cancer.
Li Ni told reporters that according to objective criteria, high-risk groups of liver cancer mainly include those who are positive for HBV virus infection and suffer from other liver diseases, especially cirrhosis.
If the scope is further expanded, it also includes people who are addicted to alcohol, do not like sports, and are obese.
He Jie, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the National Cancer Center, believes: "I believe that advanced liquid biopsy technology can improve the level of early diagnosis of liver cancer, thereby increasing the 5-year survival rate of liver cancer patients."
Cancer is not only a health problem, but also a livelihood problem. It is the number one killer that seriously endangers lives and affects the health of our residents.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, "Healthy China" has been elevated to a national strategy.
The "Healthy China 2030" Planning Outline" proposes to "carry out early diagnosis and treatment of key cancers in high-incidence areas" and "by 2030, achieve an overall increase in the 5-year survival rate of cancer by 15%."
At present, a large number of cancer screening work has been carried out at the national level, such as the implementation of the rural women’s two-cancer screening project, the rural cancer early diagnosis and treatment project, the urban cancer early diagnosis and treatment project, and the Huai River Basin cancer early diagnosis and treatment project. 700 million yuan for screening and early diagnosis and treatment of eight major cancers.
At the local level, about 18 regions across the country have carried out early screening, diagnosis and treatment of key cancers, such as the two-cancer screening for women in Beijing, and colorectal cancer screening in Shanghai and Tianjin.
With the continuous investment of central and local finances, the range of people who will benefit in the future will become wider and wider. This gives people across the country hope for cancer prevention and control.
(Reporter Zhang Ye)