L2M NSERC - A liquid biopsy blood test for breast cancer detection

有效治疗癌症患者的关键在很大程度上取决于准确和及时的诊断；这个过程可以产生关于癌症分期、肿瘤的分子特征、可能扩散到哪里以及患者预后的重要线索。目前用于诊断癌症的金标准方法是基于图像分析，然后是手术活检-一种高度侵入性的分子测试形式。对于患者来说，这一过程往往是痛苦、痛苦的，而且不能保证准确的结果。十多年来，新兴的非侵入性分析肿瘤材料的技术正在从根本上改变癌症护理的未来。液体活组织检查评估血液中的分析物，如循环肿瘤细胞(CTCs)或CTCs的组成部分，如循环肿瘤DNA(CTDNA)。液体活组织检查在癌症诊断和许多癌症的临床治疗中具有越来越重要的价值。此外，它们远远优于另一种组织活检，后者的组织样本并不总是代表整个肿瘤的异质性。此外，它们提供了更准确的癌症进展信息，更经济、更负担得起，而且不需要专家团队(即外科医生)。在这里，我们介绍mDETECT，一种第二代液体活检，专门用于提供转移性乳腺癌所有亚型的临床处理。MDETECT技术与其他液体活组织检查相比的优势在于，它包括以高精度和高灵敏度对ctDNA上受专利保护的甲基化区域进行测序，并可用于几乎所有患者群体。这项建议的目的是评估mDETECT与评估癌症治疗有效性的传统黄金标准或替代传统黄金标准的使用。我们希望分析营销mDETECT的可行性，并衡量医疗保健提供者和保险机构的兴趣。

The key to treating cancer patients effectively largely depends on accurate and timely diagnosis; a process that can yield important clues about the stage of cancer, the tumour's molecular signature, where it is likely to spread, and the prognosis for the patient. The current gold standard methods used to diagnose cancers are based on image analysis, followed by surgical biopsies - a highly invasive form of molecular testing. For patients, this process is often painful, distressing, and does not guarantee accurate results. For more than a decade, emerging non-invasive techniques to analyze tumour material are fundamentally changing the future of cancer care. Liquid biopsies assess analytes in the bloodstream, such as circulating tumour cells (CTCs) or components of CTCs such as circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA). Liquid biopsies are increasingly recognized as having value for cancer diagnosis and clinical management of many cancers. In addition, they are far superior to the alternative - tissue biopsies, where tissue samples are not always representative of the overall tumour heterogeneity. Furthermore, they provide more accurate information about cancer progression, are more economical and affordable, and do not require a team of specialists (i.e., surgeons). Here, we present mDETECT, a second-generation liquid biopsy specifically aimed to provide clinical management of all subtypes of metastatic breast cancer. The superiority of mDETECT's technology over other liquid biopsies is it encompasses sequencing of patent-protected methylation regions across ctDNA with high precision and sensitivity and can be used in almost all patient populations. The objective of this proposal is to assess the use of mDETECT in conjunction with or in lieu of traditional gold standards of assessing cancer therapy effectiveness. We are looking to analyze the feasibility of marketing mDETECT and gauging the interest of health care providers and insurance bodies.