Test, with blood sample, detects tumors in early stages

▲ Image generated by Gemini artificial intelligence

Europa Press

La Jornada Newspaper, Friday, August 1, 2025, p. 6

Madrid. A team led by a specialist from the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) has developed a test that can detect solid tumors in their early stages using a simple blood sample, while also providing relevant information for treatment selection.

The study, led by Gonçalo Bernardes, head of the Translational Chemical Biology Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), has been published in the journal Nature Communications .

To achieve early detection, the team focused the test not on the markers emitted by the tumor, but on the body's defensive reaction to cancer. It has been known since the 19th century that the appearance of cancer cells causes changes in the immune system, and it was also known that these changes are more intense in the earliest stages of cancer. But these changes had never been used for diagnosis. The new study focuses on these markers, specifically on the changes in blood proteins that occur when cancer alters the immune system.

Our approach has proven particularly effective in detecting tumors at an early stage, which is critical because, if we detect them early, we can treat many types of cancer , Bernardes explained.

In proposing this approach, the team encountered a problem: human blood contains more than 5,000 proteins, making their analysis extremely difficult. Therefore, they used bioinformatics analysis and narrowed the study target to five amino acids: lysine, tryptophan, tyrosine, cysteine, and non-disulfide-bonded cysteine.

They then subjected the sample to reactions that emit fluorescence when light is applied to them—fluorogenic reactions—and which revealed the exact concentration of each of these amino acids in the plasma. Using machine learning , they identified patterns in these concentrations that could be translated into diagnostic signals.

The samples studied so far did not come exclusively from people with cancer: "It's very important to note that, when analyzing samples from patients with other diseases, we discovered that the signs are different. For example, the immunological signals of a person with SARS-CoV-2 are different from those of a person with cancer, just as they are in different types of cancer and even in different stages. We can identify all of this with our test ," Bernardes noted.

The unique characteristics of each type of cancer also provide other information of interest to clinical practice: whether or not the patient will respond to certain treatments. The article describes that the test was 100 percent accurate in predicting that a patient would not respond to an anti-metastatic treatment. When it predicted that they would, the accuracy was 87 percent. Therefore, they assert that the test could also be used for precision medicine when choosing treatments.

More trials underway

A sample of 170 patients was sufficient to reach this point, but the researcher acknowledges that much more data is needed to complete the commercial development of the test. To this end, two clinical studies are already underway in the United Kingdom—funded by that country's national health system—and a series of other trials are underway in various countries such as the United States and China. Once developed, the platform will likely be marketed through a spin-off company in Cambridge called Proteotype Ltd., of which Bernardes is a co-founder, along with other authors.

As explained in the published article, they applied this technique to samples from 170 patients and were able to identify 78 percent of the cancers with a zero percent false positive rate.

Bernardes also emphasizes that the test is easy to use, requiring only a small blood sample and simple reagents found in any hospital. To make the diagnosis, Bernardes' team, also a professor at the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), is developing a platform that will analyze the data.

▲ Astronaut Dave Scott piloted the all-terrain buggy on the lunar surface in 1971. Photo by Europa Press

Europa Press

La Jornada Newspaper, Friday, August 1, 2025, p. 6

Madrid. Yesterday marked 54 years since Apollo XV astronaut Dave Scott first drove the famous all-terrain buggy to travel across the lunar surface, in 1971.

The Lunar Rover Vehicle (LRV) arrived on the Moon packaged and measuring 90 by 150 by 170 centimeters, inserted into a compartment of the LEM descent module. The vehicle's operating range was set at 78 hours during the lunar day.

The three LRV vehicles were built by Boeing, with support from General Motors' Delco Electronics.

They consisted of a golden aluminum chassis with four wheels (not pneumatic, but made of steel mesh) and two seats. When fully deployed, they measured 3.10 meters long, 1.80 meters wide, and weighed 181 kilos empty, including the attachment and deployment device. The fully loaded weight was 621 kilos.

The speed reached was about 3-4 kilometers per hour, and the maximum was 14, and in total they traveled 90.8 kilometers on the lunar surface, never moving further than 9.6 kilometers from the module, since if the vehicle broke down, it was the maximum safe distance they could travel on foot to the ship, reports Wikipedia.

In addition to carrying two astronauts, it also carried short-range antennas, repeaters for live radio communications with Earth, television cameras, photo cameras, a soil drill, sample-gathering tweezers, a magnetometer, tools, spare parts, and cassettes under the seats.