Claims made this week that a new test to detect cancer could save thousands
of lives have been thrown into doubt by a leading cancer charity.
The test, called DR-70 ELISA, quantifies the level of DR-70, a tumour marker,
in blood. According to its manufacturer, AMDL, there is evidence that serum
levels of DR-70 are increased when malignant tissues are present in the body
and that, in lung cancer, levels increase with each stage of the disease.
However, a spokeperson for the Cancer Research Campaign told The Journal on
November 6: “A blood test that can detect early signs of cancer would be
very welcome but at the moment there is not enough evidence to say whether this
particular test will be sufficiently sensitive or reliable.”
The manufacturer says that the test can be used to detect 13 cancers. There
has been one published study in which researchers from China used the test in
277 healthy subjects and 136 patients with cancer. Sensitivity of the assay
was found to be 88 per cent for lung cancer, 93 per cent for stomach cancer,
65 per cent for breast cancer and 67 per cent for rectal cancer (Journal of
Immunoassay 1998;19:63). Further information about the DR-70 test can be found
on the manufacturer’s website (http://www.amdl.com).
The test is not currently available in the UK.