A team of scientists in the U.S. and Europe has unveiled a test that could give doctors a decade-long head start on treating certain cancers.
The method, published this week in Nature, uses low-cost DNA methylation testing (a tool already widely available) to study how tumors evolve inside the body. By analyzing chemical “marks” on cancer DNA, researchers can reconstruct the history of a tumor from a single sample, showing how long it has been present and how fast it’s likely to grow.
Some cancers, they found, may lurk for more than 10 years before ever showing up on a scan. Others accelerate in a matter of months. Knowing the difference could reshape how doctors monitor patients with slow-growing cancers that don’t need immediate treatment.
Diego Mallo, a researcher at Arizona State University who worked on the project, said the markers act like barcodes, offering more information than DNA mutations alone. “The fact that evolutionary parameters estimated using this method are strong predictors of the cancer’s outcome shows their power to improve both cancer management and monitoring patients at risk,” he said.
The model behind the test, called EVOFLUx, was applied to samples from over 2,000 patients with various blood cancers. In chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a disease that often advances slowly, the test accurately flagged which patients were likely to need treatment sooner. Those patients had almost four times the risk of requiring therapy quickly, and their overall survival was shorter.
The study also offered insight into cancers that move faster. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, most common in children, showed fewer DNA changes at diagnosis, a sign it develops rapidly. That helps explain why children with ALL often need urgent care.
Researchers say the approach could cut down on repeated biopsies and, eventually, guide more personalized treatments. Because the methylation tests are relatively cheap, they could be deployed widely if clinical trials confirm the results.
Cancer, at its core, is an evolutionary process — cells mutating and competing over time. This study suggests that these evolutionary “clocks” can be read, providing doctors and patients with a clearer picture of what lies ahead, long before the disease requires action.
Source: news.asu.edu