How a Novel Tumor Marker is Transforming Gastric Cancer Detection?

Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine’s research team unveils the reliability of stromal cell-derived factor 4 (SDF-4) protein as a cancer marker. With precise identification through simple blood tests, their discovery hints at the promising role of SDF-4 in early gastric cancer detection. Explore the forefront of medical research, where breakthroughs in cancer markers pave the way for enhanced diagnostic capabilities.

Gastrointestinal cancers, including esophageal, gastric, colorectal, liver, and pancreatic cancers, frequently evade timely detection, compromising effective treatment. Consequently, there is an urgent need for a marker, a biological substance indicating tumor presence. Physicians leverage markers to locate, diagnose, and monitor cancer and its treatment. Early-stage therapy, especially for conditions like gastric cancer, yields more favorable outcomes and enhances the overall survival rate. Detecting and intervening at an earlier stage is crucial for improving the patient’s prognosis.

“Currently, blood tests to detect cancers, such as gastric, colorectal, and breast cancer, have used tumor markers like CEA and CA19-9. However, these tumor markers do not always accurately detect all cancers, and their accuracy needs to be improved,” said Dr. Takahiro Shinozuka, the first author of the study. “Other markers have been proposed but have drawbacks, such as intricate, costly measurement procedures or invasive testing methods, that prevent their use.”

Professor Yasuhiro Kodera, Dr. Mitsuro Kanda, and Dr. Shinozuka’s team aimed to develop novel tumor markers for early cancer detection. By exploring proteins released by cancer cells, they pinpointed SDF-4 as a promising candidate. Analyzing blood samples from both cancer patients and healthy subjects revealed consistently elevated SDF-4 levels in cancer samples. These findings, encompassing various cancers like gastric, esophageal, colorectal, pancreatic, breast, and liver cancer, were documented in Scientific Reports. The research underscores the potential of SDF-4 as a versatile and valuable tumor marker for diverse cancer types.

In the realm of cancer diagnosis, the critical metrics are sensitivity and specificity. Sensitivity gauges the test’s effectiveness in detecting the disease in afflicted patients, while specificity assesses its accuracy in identifying the disease in healthy patients. The group’s protein demonstrated an impressive sensitivity of 89% and specificity of 99%, surpassing conventional tumor markers like CEA (13%) and CA19-9 (17%) in identifying cancer patients. Notably, elevated levels of this protein were detected even in patients with stage I gastric cancer, hinting at its potential to detect cancer at an early, asymptomatic stage.

“There are two ways in which SDF4 outperforms conventional tumor markers as a diagnostic marker. The first is that it can diagnose patients with early-stage cancer, and the second is that it is useful as a diagnostic marker for various types of cancer,” Shinozuka said. “We are working with a company to develop measurement devices that can be used for cancer screening. If these efforts are successful, we hope to introduce SDF4 into actual cancer screening, helping in the early detection of cancer.”

Source Link – Nagoya University Research Information