I-Corps: Evolutionary Biology Platform for the Early Detection of Solid Tumor Cancers

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种独立的、非侵入性的泛癌症诊断测试，以消除每年超过24万名晚期癌症患者的损失。通过一次测试及早发现多种癌症可能会抵消与现有诊断标准相关的115亿美元成本负担的一部分，这些标准会导致不必要的后续测试、过度治疗、晚期治疗引起的并发症以及因延长住院时间而产生的住院费用。通过使医生能够及早发现癌症和进一步的亚型疾病，该平台将允许超越检测的能力，包括治疗匹配、治疗监测和生物标记物发现-为个性化药物的更广泛的医疗保健目标做出贡献。这个i-Corps项目是基于一个诊断平台的开发，该平台提供了一个动态的分子图谱，绘制了体内癌症的演变图。这项技术依赖于一种由癌细胞和健康细胞产生的生物标记物的新分类。这项技术分析了细胞在突变和癌变时释放到血液中的蛋白质和代谢物的共同衍生特征，并在一个易于解释的进化模型中进一步对这些生物标志物进行了分类。这项技术通过识别和理解导致癌症发展的各种原因，从根本上促进了对癌症“开关”的理解。初步数据显示有很高的准确性(95%的敏感度和特异度)，并得到同行评议出版物的支持。这一技术平台可以提供患者疾病状态的全面描述。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a standalone, non-invasive pan-cancer diagnostic test to eliminate the annual loss of more than 240,000 patients to late-stage cancer. The detection of multiple cancers early and with a single test may capture part of the $11.5 billion cost burden associated with existing diagnostic standards that result in unnecessary follow-up tests, overtreatment, complications due to late-stage treatment, and hospitalization costs from extended in-patient stays. By enabling physicians to detect cancer early and further subtype disease, the platform will allow for capabilities beyond detection, including treatment matching, therapy monitoring, and biomarker discovery—contributing to the broader health care goal of personalizing medicine. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a diagnostic platform that provides a dynamic molecular profile that maps the evolution of cancer in the body. The technology relies on a novel classification of biomarkers produced by both cancer cells and healthy cells. This technique analyzes the shared derived traits of the proteins and metabolites that cells release into the blood as they mutate and become cancerous, and further classifies these biomarkers in an easily interpretable evolutionary model. The technology fundamentally advances the understanding of the cancer “switch” by both recognizing and making sense of the variety of causal factors that lead to cancer development. Preliminary data suggests a high level of accuracy (95% sensitivity and specificity), supported by peer-reviewed publications. This technology platform may provide a comprehensive portrait of a patient’s disease state.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.