A simple blood test could be used to monitor patients with the skin cancer melanoma and ensure the disease has not spread, British researchers reveal today.
The researchers, from Dundee, Scotland, say the key lies with a gene called TFP12.
They say that when the cancer becomes advanced this gene is inactivated by a process of DNA methylation – and the process can be detected with a blood test. The test would measure levels of methylated TFP12.
The findings were being reported to the National Cancer Research Institute conference in Liverpool, UK.
Researcher Dr Tim Crook, a consultant medical oncologist, said: “By using a blood test, we have the basis of a simple and accurate way of discovering how advanced the disease is, as well as an early warning sign of whether it has started to spread.
"This would give doctors and patients important information much sooner than is possible at the moment.
"There’s increasing evidence that the latest treatments are more effective in these early stages and, if we can identify patients whose cancer has only just started to spread, this would significantly improve the chances of beating the disease.”
Institute chair Dr Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “Thanks to research, more than eight in ten people now survive melanoma for at least ten years. But there’s still more work to be done to improve things further, particularly for those patients whose cancer has spread to other organs."
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