Scientists in Manchester will play a key part in US President Barack Obama’s “moonshot” initiative to revolutionise cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Working alongside their American colleagues, a team from Cancer Research UK’s Manchester Institute will develop a new “liquid biopsy” test that can detect tumour cells in the blood.
It’s hoped the simple test will help doctors to spot the early signs of cancer in healthy people, as well as identify those patients at risk of relapse.
Experts want to get the technology into clinics around the world as quickly as possible and the Manchester-based team will lead studies of lung cancer while the US scientists focus on bowel cancer.
Professor Caroline Dive, from the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, says that up to half of patients treated for early-stage lung cancer relapse after surgery and the new “liquid biopsies” will be able to help identify those at risk.
She said: “The prospect of using blood samples to detect and track cancer – so-called liquid biopsies – is set to transform cancer care over the next few years.
“We are exhilarated by the prospect of this new partnership, and at bringing this exciting new technology to the UK.
“Although early lung cancer can be treated successfully with surgery, patients face an anxious wait after treatment, and about half eventually relapse.
“Our new collaboration will let us spot those likely to relapse and get in early with other treatments, improving how we care for these patients, and delivering better outcomes, faster.”
President Obama announced the launch of Cancer Moonshot during his State of the Union address in January.
The $1bn (£710m) scheme aims to bring a decade’s worth of advances in just five years by improving the detection of cancer and making more new therapies available to patients.
It is being led by Vice-President Joe Biden who lost his son Beau to brain cancer at the age of 46 last year.
The team from the Manchester Institute will work with a super-sensitive cell-scanning device developed by Professor Peter Kuhn at the University of Southern California.
Prof Kuhn added: “Our new technique, developed over the past 10 years, is able to detect cancer cells in the blood far more sensitively and characterise them far more deeply than ever before.
“We’re excited to work with Caroline’s team and accelerate its progression into routine use.”
