A research group led by Professor Yasuhiro Kodera of Nagoya University Graduate School has discovered a new blood cancer marker, SDF-4, which can be measured with a blood test and has the potential to accurately detect multiple cancers, including stomach cancer, at an early stage.
Cancer markers such as CEA and CA19-9 have been used in blood tests to detect cancers such as stomach cancer, colon cancer, and breast cancer, but the accuracy and precision of cancer detection is not sufficient.Early detection of cancer increases the success rate of treatment, so there has been a need for the development of highly accurate cancer markers.
In this research, the protein SDF-4 (stromal cell-derived factor 4) was identified by investigating substances secreted by cancer cells.Blood SDF4 levels were found to be high in many types of cancer, including stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, and liver cancer.The numbers were particularly impressive for stomach cancer, with 89% and 99% success rates in identifying people with stomach cancer and people without stomach cancer, respectively.Furthermore, patients with early stage stage 1 gastric cancer also showed higher levels than healthy controls.
When the concentration of SDF-4 in the culture solution of cancer cells was measured, the SDF-4 level was elevated, indicating that the cancer cells themselves were secreting SDF-4.In addition, SDF-4 levels increased even in ground cancer cells, suggesting that the disintegration of cancer cells may also increase blood levels in cancer patients.Furthermore, in gastric cancer patients, SDF-1 was present in gastric cancer tissue but not in normal tissue.These results were similar in patients with stage 4 gastric cancer and advanced gastric cancer, and SDF-XNUMX was present in cancer tissue from the early stages of cancer.
This demonstrated that SDF-4 offers new possibilities for early diagnosis of various cancers.In the future, large-scale international collaborative research is planned to verify the diagnostic accuracy of this cancer marker.The company has also started developing a diagnostic measurement kit, with the aim of making this new testing method available to as many people as possible.
Paper information:[Scientific Reports] Identification of stromal cell-derived factor 4 as a liquidbiopsy-based diagnostic marker in solid cancers
