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Issue link: https://clinicalomics.epubxp.com/i/853204
6 Clinical OMICs July/August 2017 www.clinicalomics.com News Essentially, the findings led to a model for the biophysical constraints govern- ing off-target DNA binding. This mod- el, for example, suggests that Cascade pays less attention to every third letter in a DNA sequence than to the others. Knowing such rules could lead to better computer models for predicting which DNA segments a specific CRISPR mol- ecule is likely to interact with. And that can save time and money in developing personalized gene therapies. Researchers Develop Single Biomarker Assay to Predict Bladder Cancer Recurrence A newly developed urine biomarker test can not only detect low-grade urotheli- al bladder cancer (UBC), but predict the likelihood of its recurrence earlier and more accurately than current cytology methods, according to a study released by the British Journal of Cancer. Françoise Descotes, Ph.D., Alain Ruf- fion, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at the University Hospital of Lyon in France, who developed the test, say the single biomarker assay detects mutated forms of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), a protein involved in maintain- ing chromosome telomeres, in the urine of UBC patients. The team compared the TERT urine test with cytology, in 348 UBC patients. The biomarker assay demonstrated an overall sensitivity of 80.5% and specifici- ty of 89.8% for bladder cancer detection. In contrast, the overall sensitivity of cy- tology was just 33.6%. Importantly, TERT assay sensitivity wasn't affected by dis- ease stage or grade, and the urine bio- marker test was markedly more sensitive than cytology in detecting early-stage non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). The research team hopes that the sim- ple, noninvasive test could help doctors detect and start to treat bladder can- cer early, potentially before symptoms appear, and accurately detect disease recurrence, especially in patients with NMIBC. Cancer Prognosis and Survival Predictions Aided by DNA Methylation Patterns New research published in Proceed- ings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that DNA methylation can pro- vide effective markers for predicting the prognosis and survival of four cancers. "We report that methylation patterns can predict the prognosis and survival, with good correlation between differ- ential methylation of CpG sites and ex- pression of cancer-associated genes. Their findings demonstrate the utility of methylation biomarkers for the mo- lecular characterization, diagnosis, and prognosis of cancer," write the scientists in the study "DNA Methylation Markers for Diagnosis and Prognosis of Common Cancers." Kang Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., and col- leagues studied DNA methylation for differentiating tumor tissue and normal tissue for the four most common can- cers (lung, breast, colon, and liver) in three different databases. These included a training cohort of 1619 tumor samples and 173 matched adjacent normal tissue samples; a testing cohort of 791 tumor samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas and 93 matched adjacent normal tissue sam- ples and another independent testing Chinese cohort of 394 tumor samples; and 324 matched adjacent normal tis- sue samples. They discovered that DNA methyla- tion analysis could predict cancer versus normal tissue with more than 95% accu- racy in the three cohorts, comparable to typical diagnostic methods, noted to Dr. Zhang. In addition, the analysis correct- ly identified 97% colorectal cancer me- tastases to the liver and 94% colorectal cancer metastases to the lung. More studies are planned to fully ex- plore the clinical applications and po- tential of DNA methylation and its role in future personalized cancer care. Sequencing Study Shows Existing Drugs Could Treat Some Osteosarcoma Patients A team of researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, University College London Cancer Institute, and the Royal National Orthopedic Hospital NHS Trust, has found that 10% of patients with a Avdeev_80 / Getty Images Kostafly / Getty Images (continued from page 4) (continued on page 8)