A malaria protein has been adapted to hunt down cancer cells circulating in the blood, Danish researchers have reported.
The technique will allow doctors to measure the number of cancerous cells in a sample, according to the developers.
The first application of the technique is likely to be to identify risk of metastatic disease.
But the researchers say it might also be used to screen for risk of cancer – or to perform simple tests when the disease is suspected.
They have reported their findings in Nature. The work follows earlier work on the use of the protein VAR2CSA in developing cancer treatments. They have found that the malaria protein sticks to a sugar molecule found in 95% of kinds of cancer cells.
Researcher Professor Ali Salanti, from the University of Copenhagen, said: "We have developed a method where we take a blood sample and with great sensitivity and specificity, we’re able to retrieve the individual cancer cells from the blood. We catch the cancer cells in greater numbers than existing methods, which offers the opportunity to detect cancer earlier and thus improve outcome. You can use this method to diagnose broadly, as it’s not dependent on cancer type.
“We have already detected various types of cancer cells in blood samples. And if there is a cancer cell in your blood, you have a tumour somewhere in your body."
He added: "Today, it’s difficult to determine which stage cancer is at. Our method has enabled us to detect cancer at stages one, two, three and four. Based on the number of circulating tumour cells we find in someone’s blood, we’ll be able to determine whether it’s a relatively aggressive cancer or not so then to adjust the treatment accordingly.,"
Fellow researcher Dr Mette Ørskov Agerbæk said: “This method also enables us to retrieve live cancer cells, which we can then grow and use for testing treatments in order to determine which type of treatment the patient responds to."
The VAR2CSA malaria protein efficiently retrieves circulating tumor cells in an EpCAM-independent manner. Nature Communications 16 August 2018
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