Cancer Research
Game-changing blood test to detect bowel cancer
Anh Pham, Professor Mark Molloy, Benita Tse, Gabriella Parrilla, Matthew McKay
Bowel cancer is the third most common type of cancer in Australia and treating it is both costly and complex. Alarmingly, rates are rising among people under 50, and researchers still don’t know why.
“We’re very interested in whether we can move to a blood test, and not just any blood test. We’re working to do this from a few drops of blood collected from a finger prick.” Working with scientists from Sangui Bio, a biotechnology partner of the Kolling Institute, Professor Molloy has analysed proteins in blood samples from around 1,200 patients. “We can definitely see a signature in the blood from the finger prick sampling that’s linked to the presence of polyps and early cancers, but more research is needed.”
It is for these reasons that Professor Mark Molloy is on a mission to prevent the disease in the first place. Based in the Kolling Institute, the leading bowel cancer research specialist is running several projects looking at early detection. He says the first promising pathway is a blood test. Currently, the main screening method is a government-funded test that detects blood in the stool. It’s mailed to people over 50, but Professor Molloy says because it requires them to collect the sample themselves, only around 40 per cent return a completed test. “They don’t like handling a stool sample, and early cancers may not leak blood so they can go undetected by this method,” he said.
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