Abeloff V Scholar*
Early detection of cancer represents a critically important goal in the improvement of survival outcome in common cancers. However, existing tests have shortcomings in sensitivity and accuracy, and false positive results often lead to additional expensive tests, risks inducing anxiety in patients and their families, and even potential harm if complications result from follow-up studies. To address these shortcomings, our proposal will develop a cutting-edge, highly-sensitive genome-wide approach for cancer screening and monitoring of tumor-derived DNA in easily-accessible body fluids. We will focus on developing this minimally-invasive “liquid biopsy” approach on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the leading cause of cancer death globally, and on Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common type of blood cancer. Once developed, we will apply this approach in populations at risk for NSCLC and lymphomas to validate early detection of these tumors. We thus anticipate that we can devise a sensitive method for early disease detection and monitoring that will be broadly applicable to many other cancers.
