Pan-cancer differentially methylated regions are promising biomarkers for non-invasive diagnosis in multiple cancers
A blood test identifying shared cancer methylation patterns achieved 97% specificity, advancing toward a single screening tool for multiple cancer types.
Researchers identified conserved DNA methylation changes across 11 cancer types and built a plasma cfDNA diagnostic model validated in 1,108 patients, achieving high specificity (96.9%) with meaningful early-stage sensitivity. Pan-cancer DMRs outperformed cancer-type-specific markers in cfDNA, providing a foundation for a universal multi-cancer liquid biopsy test.
What the study was
- Study design
- Observational cohort (multi-cancer diagnostic model, retrospective)
- Population
- Pan-cancer patients across 11 malignancy types
- Sample size
- 1108
- Category
- Early Detection
- Maturity
- Validated
- Journal
- iScience
Why it surfaced
Pan-cancer cfDNA methylation model validated in n=1108 with 77% sensitivity / 96.9% specificity across 7 cancers; early-stage sensitivities (>69%) are clinically meaningful. Pan-cancer DMR approach is a novel framing with clear pipeline relevance for multi-cancer screening.
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