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| The mSept9 Colorectal Cancer Blood Test |
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Diagnostic tests for early cancer detection that can be applied to population-wide first-line screening, need to be performed on conveniently obtainable samples such as blood or urine. Epigenomics‘ cancer screening tests rely on a rather simple biological phenomenon: even at the earliest stages tumors shed DNA into body fluids they are exposed to. Thus, tumor DNA in blood or urine is a formidable indicator – or “biomarker” – for the presence of a tumor. But how can this tumor DNA be detected?
With a vast excess of DNA derived from healthy cells in the same body fluids, it is a “needle in the haystack” problem. Epigenomics has solved this problem by using a DNA methylation approach. DNA methylation provides a unique “fingerprint” on certain genes that is specific not only for cancer but also for the organ in which the cancer resides and thus allows the development of diagnostic tests that are specific for different cancer indications. The Sept9 gene for example is almost exclusively methylated in colorectal cancer and can serve as a disease and organ specific biomarker to detect this cancer. Epigenomics has developed the technologies to read this DNA methylation "fingerprint" and use it for the sensitive detection of tumor DNA in a blood sample. With this technology, minute amounts of DNA derived from as few as two tumor cells can be detected in a routine blood plasma sample. |
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