Blood Test for Detection of Colon Cancer

A blood test has shown high specificity and high sensitivity for colon cancer, making it a good candidate for use in screening programs.

In a study, 73 blood samples from patients with colon cancer were compared to 352 normal blood samples. The sensitivity of the test was 74%, with 95% specificity, and when the specificity was increased to 100%, the sensitivity remained over 71%. The test is based on the Recaf marker of BioCurex (Richmond, Canada; www.biocurex.com).

The sensitivity of the Recaf assay is comparable to that of the CEA (carcinoembryonic antigen) test, another marker currently used for diagnosis and follow-up of colon cancer. However, the specificity of the CEA test is only 70-80%, which means that 20-30% of cancer-free patients appear as false-positives. Such a large number of false-positives makes the use of CEA unsuitable for general screening.

BioCurex notes that the Recaf test results obtained with colon cancer are consistent with results obtained in patients with stomach, breast, lung, and ovarian cancers. The finding of Recaf in many tissue types points to a basic feature of cancer growth, the company believes. "An encouraging idea emerging from our study suggests that combining Recaf with CEA could greatly increase the overall sensitivity and specificity and that could translate into a much earlier diagnosis than what we now have,” commented Dr. Ricardo Moro, of BioCurex.




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