Page 7 - DVG

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 3 June 2019
Companies report progress on blood tests to detect cancer

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE cancers where the detec-
AP Chief Medical Writer tion rate may not be as
A California company says good, he said.
its experimental blood test The biggest question, he
was able to detect many said, is “will it make a differ-
types of cancer at an early ence in outcomes” such as
stage and gave very few whether it helps people live
false alarms in a study that longer, the ultimate mea-
included people with and sure of a screening test’s
without the disease. worth.
Grail Inc. gave results in a Grail’s test has not been
news release on Friday and compared to mammogra-
will report them Saturday phy, colonoscopy or other
at the American Society of screening tools and is not
Clinical Oncology meeting intended to replace them,
in Chicago. They have not said the company’s chief
been published in a journal scientific officer, Dr. Alex
or reviewed by other scien- Aravanis. Many deadly
tists. cancers that the Grail test
Many companies are try- detected have no screen-
ing to develop early de- ing tests now, he noted.
tection “liquid biopsy” tests It’s not clear what evi-
that capture bits of DNA dence the U.S. Food and
that cancer cells shed into In this Tuesday, April 28, 2015 file photo, a patient has her blood drawn at a hospital in Philadelphia Drug Administration would
blood. to monitor her cancer treatment. require to consider for ap-
On Thursday, Johns Hop- Associated Press proval. Sometimes tests
kins University scientists cancer and 40% not known spread but not widely. worth as a screening tool, can be sold through looser
launched a company to have it. The test detect- It also suggested where the but these results are en- lab accreditation path-
called Thrive Earlier De- ed 55% of known cancers cancer may be in 94% of couraging, he said. ways rather than by seek-
tection Corp. to develop and gave false alarms for cases and was right about Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, interim ing FDA approval.
its CancerSEEK test, which 1%. The detection rate that 90% of the time. chief medical officer of the Grail and Thrive already
yielded results similar to was better — 76% — for a That’s the most encourag- American Cancer Society, have larger studies under-
Grail’s more than a year dozen cancers that col- ing part because you don’t called the low rate of false way. “We’re not going to di-
ago. lectively account for nearly want to tell people they alarms “remarkable.” agnose every cancer,” but
Grail is closely watched be- two thirds of cancer deaths may have cancer and then “I have little doubt that in may not need to because
cause of the extraordinary in the U.S., including lung, need to do a lot of other the next several years we’re so many are not found
investment it’s attracted — pancreatic, esophageal tests to figure out where, going to have what is prob- now until it’s too late for ef-
more than $1 billion from and ovarian. said Dr. Richard Schilsky, ably a true early detection fective treatment, said Dr.
Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and The test found only about a chief medical officer of the test” but the technology Minetta Liu, a Mayo Clinic
other celebrities. third of cancers at the very oncology society. still needs to improve and cancer specialist who is
The new results included earliest stage but as many “They still have a long way to be tried in large groups presenting Grail’s results at
2,300 people, 60% with as 84% that had started to to go” to prove the test’s of people without known the cancer conference.q
Scientists find flaws in plan

to lift U.S. wolf protections

By MATTHEW BROWN and “It looks like they decided elsewhere have fueled re-
JOHN FLESHER to delist and then they sentment against wolves
Associated Press compiled all the evidence among livestock owners
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Sci- that they thought support- who must deal with attacks
entists tasked with review- ed that decision. It simply by the predators. Also,
ing government plans to lift doesn’t support the deci- some hunters see wolves as
protections for gray wolves sion,” said Adrian Treves, competition for big game
across most of the U.S. said an environmental studies animals.
in a report released Friday professor at the University After being nearly wiped
that the proposal has nu- of Wisconsin. out in the Lower 48 early
In this July 16, 2004, file photo, a gray wolf is seen at the Wildlife merous factual errors and The findings could under- last century, more than
Science Center in Forest Lake, Minn. other problems. cut the government’s con- 6,000 gray wolves now live
Associated Press The five-member scientific tention that gray wolves in portions of nine states.
panel’s conclusions were across the Lower 48 have The decades-long, govern-
detailed in a 245-page re- recovered from near exter- ment-sponsored recovery
port delivered to the U.S. mination. effort for the animals has
Fish and Wildlife Service. Federal officials have been cost roughly $160 million.
One reviewer said the U.S. under increasing pressure Yet gray wolves remain
Fish and Wildlife Service ap- to put wolves under state absent from most of their
peared to have come to a management, which is al- historical range. Critics of
pre-determined conclu- ready the case in parts of lifting protections say the
sion, not supported by its the Northern Rockies where move would be premature
own science, that wolves hunting and trapping of and worry that more hunt-
should come off the en- the animals is allowed. ing will reverse the species’
dangered species list. Prohibitions on hunting rebound. q