What if cancer could be detected years before symptoms ever appear? In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks sits down with Dr. Yuxuan Wang, cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins, to discuss her team’s promising work on multicancer early detection (MCED) blood tests.
These ultra-sensitive sequencing tests can spot tiny fragments of tumor DNA circulating in the blood. In their recent study, the MCED test flagged early cancer signs in 8 out of 26 participants who were later diagnosed — half of them more than three years before their cancer was picked up clinically. While still experimental and not FDA-approved, this research points to a future where cancer screening might extend well beyond mammograms and colonoscopies.
In this episode, we cover:
- Dr. Wang’s journey into cancer research and what inspired her focus.
- What multicancer early detection (MCED) blood tests are and how they work.
- How the Johns Hopkins study was designed and what the key results showed.
- Which cancer types were detected and what limitations still exist.
- Challenges such as false positives, incidental findings, and overtreatment risks.
- The ethical and practical questions of telling patients they may have cancer years before symptoms.
- Cost and accessibility concerns: how to make such tests affordable if approved.
- Next steps toward larger trials, FDA approval, and clinical use.
- How MCED could change the landscape of cancer screening and prevention in the future.
- Balancing public enthusiasm, media attention, and scientific caution.
This is a fascinating and nuanced conversation about the possibilities, and challenges, of catching cancer earlier than ever before.
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