Liquid biopsy technology could propel early cancer screening into the 'era of the people'
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The year 2020 must be written into human history -- the "black swan" of the COVID-19 epidemic has killed more than two million people worldwide in just 12 months. And just stepped into 2021, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) gave mankind a more frightening report -- in 2020, the global new cancer cases 19.29 million, the global cancer death cases 9.96 million.
As the report of the International Union against Cancer (UICC) shows, the global public health resources in response to the COVID-19 have also affected the research, prevention and treatment of cancer. Not only that, but the COVID-19 epidemic has affected many people's incomes and put more families under greater financial pressure, which adds to the burden of providing cancer patients with continuous and effective treatment. How to deal with the threat from cancer economically and efficiently is a common issue that needs to be considered globally in the "epidemic normalization" and even in the "post-epidemic era".
At the same time, the COVID-19 brings a very important reminder to all mankind, that is, scientific screening technologies and strategies are essential for the prevention and control of major diseases. As Dr Cary Adams, CEO of the UICC, said on this year's World Cancer Day: "Let us all refocus our goals for 2021 on how we can work together to address the long-term challenge cancer poses to countries around the world. We must do more to prevent it, diagnose it earlier and ensure that all cancer patients have access to the quality care they need."
It is recognized by the scientific community that early diagnosis and early treatment in the early stage of cancer is an effective means to improve the cure rate of cancer patients and reduce the pain and economic burden of cancer patients. Therefore, the awareness of cancer early screening for high-risk groups in various countries has increased significantly. Leading cancer precision medicine innovators around the world are stepping up technology development for early screening, and one of the major trends is investing in liquid biopsy technology.
Liquid biopsy is a test that analyzes a person's physical condition by detecting biomarkers in their body fluids (blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, etc.). Compared with traditional biopsy methods, liquid biopsy does not require tissue puncture. Instead, noninvasive specimens, such as blood and urine, are obtained and the disease is diagnosed and evaluated through high-throughput sequencing and other techniques. At the same time, liquid biopsy has few side effects, simple operation, repeated sampling and other advantages, and the medical cost is relatively low. It is widely used in noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT), genetic disease screening and other fields.
In recent years, with the continuous progress of technology, liquid biopsy has presented a greater application prospect in the field of early cancer screening. Compared with conventional screening methods such as imaging, liquid biopsy has more accurate, accessible, non-invasive and standardized advantages. However, up to now, no country or company has been able to commercialize NGS-based tumor liquid biopsy technology for early screening on a real scale. Globally, cancer early screening based on NGS liquid biopsies is still in the stage of technological upgrading and product optimization.
Although China started late in the field of biotechnology, under the active guidance and support of national policies, domestic innovative enterprises in this field have made great achievements in various technical fields, especially in the field of liquid biopsy, which has made a major breakthrough leading the world. For example, in the research and development of liquid biopsy early screening technology for liver cancer, Chinese companies have taken the lead in publishing large-scale prospective cohort studies in international journals, and their data results are at the international leading level.
The key research technology of Chinese biotech companies in the field of liquid biopsies for early screening of cancer can be used to achieve more tests with fewer blood samples to ensure more diverse information about the tumor and the accuracy of each result. Based on these technologies, the early screening product developed by the Chinese company for liver cancer has been recognized as a "breakthrough medical device" for its superior clinical performance in a prospective cohort study conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) compared with the current medical standard (i.e., ultrasound combined with alpha-fetoprotein test).
The year 2021 will be the last year of World Cancer Day, a three-year campaign themed "I am and I will fight Cancer together", which will also encourage people to act together to fight Cancer together (2021: Together, All Our Actions Matter.
Only by realizing the universal and large-scale application of products can the comprehensive promotion of cancer early screening be truly realized through technological innovation. We are also gratified to see that in the Chinese market, which has the largest number of cancer patients in the world, early screening products for liver cancer based on liquid biopsy technology have realized the layout of three commercial routes, including physical examination institutions, hospital market and government livelihood projects, with its advantages of lower cost and higher accuracy.
2021 is the last year of World Cancer Day's three-year "Care for Patients, I Am and I Will" theme, which also encourages people to act together to fight Cancer (2021: Together, All Our Actions Matter.
