Liquid biopsy technology key to early screening for cancer

The year 2020 will go down in history as a period when the COVID-19 pandemic claimed the lives of more than two million people worldwide in 12 months. Just entering the 2021, the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization gave the public an even more frightening statistic: there were 19.29 million new cancer cases and 9.96 million cancer deaths globally in 2020. 

At the same time, limited public health resources have also affected the research, prevention and treatment of cancers while responding to the pandemic, according to a report by The Union for International Cancer Control. Moreover, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the income of many people, more families are under greater financial pressure, which is undoubtedly making it more difficult for cancer patients to receive sustainable and effective cancer treatments.

While the COVID-19 virus has greatly impacted public health, cancer remains a more severe threat. How to deal with the threat of cancer economically and efficiently is a common issue that the world needs to consider both during and after our recovery from the pandemic.

The good news is that the COVID-19 pandemic has served as a very important reminder that scientific screening technologies and strategies are essential for the prevention and control of major diseases. Cary Adams, CEO of UICC, emphasized on this year’s World Cancer Day.

"Let us all aim in 2021 to refocus our collective efforts on the long-term challenges that cancer poses to every country in the world. We must prevent more, diagnose earlier, and ensure that all people living with cancer have access to the quality treatment they need."

With a mission of "fighting against cancer to safeguard life", Genetron Health believes that liquid biopsy technology will help promote and implement early cancer screening for everyone, and achieve the transformation and innovation of cancer treatment for a new era, which resonates with the theme of this year's World Cancer Day, "I am and I will".

The scientific community recognizes that an effective way to increase the cure rate for cancer patients, and to reduce the pain and financial burden of patients, is to conduct early diagnosis and treatment in the early stages of cancer. As a result, the awareness of early cancer screening for high-risk groups has increased significantly in many countries. The world's leading cancer precision medicine innovation companies are increasing the research and development of early screening technologies. One of the main trends is the investment in liquid biopsy technology.

Liquid biopsy refers to a test that analyzes the body by detecting biomarkers in human fluids, including blood, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid. It is widely used in non-invasive prenatal testing, genetic disease screening and other fields. Compared with traditional biopsy methods, liquid biopsy does not require tissue puncture, but uses non-invasive specimens such as blood and urine to diagnose and evaluate diseases via high-throughput sequencing technologies. At the same time, liquid biopsy has the advantages of reduced side effects, simpler operation, re-sampling, and relatively low cost.

In recent years, with the continuous development of technology, liquid biopsy has shown promising application prospects in the field of early cancer screening. Compared with conventional screening methods such as imaging, it is more advanced in precision, accessibility, non-invasiveness and standardization. However, as of now, no country or company has been able to commercialize NGS-based tumor liquid biopsy technology for early screening on a large scale. Globally, NGS-based liquid biopsy for early cancer screening is still in the stage of technology and product upgrade optimization.

Despite a late start in the field of biotechnology, thanks to the active guidance and support of national policies, Chinese innovation companies in biotech have made many achievements in various technical fields. In particular, the field of liquid biopsy has witnessed world-leading breakthroughs. For example, in terms of the research and development of liquid biopsy early screening technology for liver cancer, Chinese companies have taken the lead in publishing large-scale prospective cohort research results in international journals, and the data results are world class.

The innovative original technology of Chinese biotechnology companies in the field of liquid biopsy for early screening of cancer allows more tests with fewer blood samples to ensure more diverse information about the tumor and the accuracy of each result. Based on these original technologies, Chinese companies have developed an early screening product for liver cancer, which performed better than current medical standards (ultrasound plus with alpha-fetoprotein) in the FDA prospective cohort study. As a result, it has been recognized as a "Breakthrough Medical Device" by the FDA.

2021 is the final year of the World Cancer Day three-year "I am and I will"-themed campaign. It also encourages everyone to act together and cooperate in the fight against cancer (2021: Together, all our actions matter).

Only by realizing product inclusiveness and large-scale application can we truly realize the comprehensive promotion of early cancer screening through technological innovation. We are also pleased to see that in the Chinese market, which has the largest number of cancer patients in the world, early screening products based on liquid biopsy technology have the advantage of lower cost and higher accuracy. Application is proceeding on three major commercial paths, including medical examination institutions, the hospital market, and government livelihood projects.

Sizhen Wang is the co-founder and CEO of Genetron Health.

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