Blood test at MGH may be big step in fight against cancer

CHARLESTOWN, Mass. -- A partnership between Massachusetts General Hospital and a major pharmaceutical company could be a big step forward in the fight against cancer.

A blood test for cancer is a major medical breakthrough.

“The promise of the test is really to be able to sample tumors without having to do a biopsy, without having to do an invasive procedure,” said Dr. Daniel Haber of Mass. General Hospital.

Mass. General doctors working in the Charlestown lab have come up with a test that can detect very early on if a person’s cancer is spreading. Using a microchip with a special glue, the test can detect a single cancer cell hidden among one billion healthy blood cells.

“Tumor cells stick to it. The blood just flows through,” said Dr. Haber.

Doctors say the first step is using the test on cancer patients to more accurately see how the disease has progressed, and precisely customize treatment.

“The best treatments that we have now for cancer are becoming quite effective, but they have to be targeted against the particular genetic abnormality in each cancer, so this is personalized medicine or individualized treatment,” said Dr. Haber.

The next step is using the test to screen healthy patients, perhaps at routine checkups, allowing doctors to catch cancer much earlier.

“If we can’t find the spreading of the cancer early, the treatments that are available today are much more effective. But most of the time, many of the big killers, they find them at stage 3 or stage 4,” said Dr. Mehmet Toner of the Mass. General Hospital.

They are teaming up with the pharmaceutical giant, Johnson & Johnson, to make the test faster and cheaper. The hope is that it will eventually lead to a simple blood test that can tell a seemingly healthy person at their annual physical that they actually have cancer.

“The technology has the potential to become a screening test one day,” said Dr. Toner.

It could take about five years before this test becomes routine in determining whether or not cancer is spreading, and then probably about ten years before the test can actually be used to diagnose cancer.

It costs about $500 per microchip, and doctors are looking at ways to reduce the cost.

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