The first-of-its-kind test offers a standard, quick and non-invasive alternative to regular endoscopies.
Using endoscopy to detect oesophageal cancer could soon be a thing of the past.
The incidence of oesophageal cancer is rising in Western countries such as Australia. However, Barrett’s Oesophagus – the precursor to oesophageal cancer – is often missed on surveillance endoscopy.
Now, a new diagnostic blood test, designed and developed in Australia, could reduce the need for the invasive procedure while also detecting oesophageal cancer earlier and leading to improved survival outcomes.
The PromarkerEso test involves the use of liquid-chromatography-mass spectrometry to measure the level of glycoprotein biomarkers in the blood, before a software tool uses the biomarker data with other clinical information in an algorithm to create a patient’s risk score.
The risk score indicates whether the patient has a low risk for oesophageal cancer (i.e., the reflux can be managed without the fear of cancer being present) or has moderate to high risk (where interventions are used to guide reflux management).
The glycoprotein biomarker blood test was validated across 259 samples from three independent cohorts, with the findings published earlier this year.
“PromarkerEso demonstrated a strong discrimination of [oesophageal cancer] from the controls (area under the curve (AUC) of 0.91 in the development cohort and 0.82 and 0.98 in the validation cohorts). The test exhibited a high sensitivity for [oesophageal cancer] (98% in the development cohort, and 99.9% and 91% in the validation cohorts) and a high specificity (88% in the development cohort, and 86% and 99% in the validation cohorts),” the researchers of the validation study wrote in Proteomes.
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“PromarkerEso [also] identified individuals with and without [oesophageal cancer] (96% and 95% positive and negative predictive values).”
Dr Richard Lipscombe (PhD), managing director of Proteomics International, highlighted the potential impact of the new technology ahead of its launch at last week’s Word Congress for Esophageal Diseases, held in Brisbane.
“The national launch of PromarkerEso offers hope to thousands of Australians living with chronic reflux and are at risk of oesophageal cancer. This blood test reduces reliance on costly multidisciplinary and invasive procedures, offers better accuracy, and improves patient experience,” he said.
More than 560,000 Australians live with gastric oesophageal reflux disease (GERD/GORD) – more commonly known as gastric reflux, and a risk factor for oesophageal cancer – with the RACGP reporting that 11.5% of all GP visits relate to reflux. Oesophageal cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reporting a five-year survival rate of 25% for people diagnosed with the disease between 2016 and 2020.
Doctors can now refer patients for the PromarkerEso test via a myTEST telehealth consultation, with blood collected at Healius Pathology centres.
