Scientists have developed a new blood test method that may effectively improve the screening of people with liver cancer

  In the latest research report published in the international journal Cell, scientists from the National Cancer Institute and other institutions used research to determine new methods that may develop into hepatocellular carcinoma. Developed a test method (HCC (hepatocellular carcinoma) population). Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer. This new method uses a simple blood test to make patients infected with a specific virus.

  XinWeiWang, combined with current screening methods, this new detection method plays a very important role in screening HCC risk populations, and clinicians should find out as soon as possible. He said that this will be a useful treatment method. This new method is relatively simple, cheap, and only requires a small amount of blood to be collected from the patient to carry out liver cancer or hepatitis B virus infection. Some factors of liver and cirrhosis will increase the risk of HCC. For example, it is generally recommended that people with risk factors be screened for HCC every 6 months, that is, using ultrasound or blood.

  Alpha-fetoprotein tested Not all people with HCC risk factors will get sick. Screening can help people find it early, but many patients will develop advanced or incurable cancer. However, patients with HCC detected early are usually easier to cure, and researchers should frequently screen patients with the highest risk of HCC. He said that he needs a better identification method because of the current HCC outbreak in the United States, so better early detection and monitoring methods are particularly important, and this number is still increasing. Said that despite many screening tests, the current liver cancer research plan focuses on the development of new methods for early detection, diagnosis and treatment of HCC patients and improving the prognosis of patients. Although it can detect many characteristics of cells, these properties will follow. Over time, researchers have discovered that not all cancer cells in tumors have the same properties. We used another method to detect the characteristics of the cancer microenvironment instead of the cell's own characteristics:

  After careful study, the researchers found that the development of cancer is the interaction between the virus and the immune system. I found that it is affected. Therefore, we want to know whether the characteristic interaction between the virus and the host immune system increases the risk of HCC. To analyze this possibility, the researchers tested blood samples of participants to look for "footprints" left by past viral infections. These footprints are retained on antibodies and can reflect the response of the human immune system to infection. Mixing the footprints of each human body creates a special pattern that researchers call a virus exposure marker.

  Next, the researchers tested more than 1,000 different viral footprints in approximately 900 blood samples (including 150 HCC patients), a special virus that can accurately distinguish HCC patients from chronic liver disease patients. We have determined the exposure mark. For healthy volunteers, these features also include information from the footprint of 61 non-transporting viruses. The researchers also analyzed markers from blood samples from 173 patients with chronic liver disease. During the study period, 44 participants were affected. With HCC, when a patient is diagnosed with cancer, their blood sample can be used for analysis, so that researchers can identify specific signs of HCC from an individual. More importantly, when researchers use the data they collected at the beginning of the study. These markers can also be found by examining blood samples.

  The detection of this label seems to be much more accurate than the detection of alphafet protein. The next step is for researchers to enter the clinical trial phase. They collaborate with other researchers on the HCC project. Prospective studies of population risk factors are testing this new approach. According to the researchers, viral infections (non-carcinogenic) can alter the function of the host's immune system, thereby affecting other cancers in the body. For example, certain infections reduce the ability of the host's immune system to suppress cancer. Researchers are testing this particular virus exposure marker on prostate cancer patients, but other researchers have used this method to screen for various cancers in Asian populations, including ovarian cancer, esophageal cancer, liver cancer and breast cancer.