Early Stage Cancer Detection / Blood or Urine Sample

 Cancer cells have specific epigenetic methylation patterns which can potentially identify many cancers.* Current study shows accuracy detecting cases of renal cell carcinoma vs bladder cancer and detecting gliomas by plasma methylation patterns.

If such epigenetic studies can lead to the early diagnosis of different cancers with blood or urine samples, it will result in a significant advance in clinical care and early screening, if not a test made directly available to patients.

*JW Gen Med, Feb 1 2019