Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the US have unveiled a new blood test that could change the way multiple myeloma (MM) and its precursor conditions are diagnosed and monitored.
The SWIFT-seq method offers a less invasive alternative to traditional bone marrow biopsies, leveraging single-cell sequencing for profiling circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in the blood.
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According to the institute, bone marrow biopsies, the current standard for assessing risk and monitoring genetic changes, can be painful and yield unclear results from techniques such as fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH), affecting risk evaluations and treatment decisions.
A complex cancer of bone marrow, MM is preceded by monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and smouldering multiple myeloma (SMM).
SWIFT-seq enables physicians to perform genetic monitoring and risk evaluations through a blood test.
It offers a genetic profile that detects important genetic changes, vital for understanding the disease, and exceeds the accuracy of tests such as FISH.
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By GlobalDataThe method also assesses growth rates of the tumour and detects gene patterns that can forecast outcomes of the patient.
In a study that included 101 subjects and healthy donors, the method captured CTCs in 90% of individuals with MM, SMM and MGUS.
It was particularly found to be effective in patients with SMM and newly diagnosed MM, identifying CTCs in 95% and 94% of these patients, respectively.
SWIFT-seq’s approach to enumerating CTCs, built on the molecular barcode of the tumour rather than cell surface markers, differentiates it from existing methods such as flow cytometry.
This technique is said to directly measure several clinically relevant features from a blood sample as well as offer insights into the tumour cell circulation biology.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute professor of medicine Dr Irene Ghobrial said: “A lot of work has gone into the identification of genomic and transcriptomic features that predict worse outcome in MM, but we are still lacking the tests to measure them in our patients.
“SWIFT-seq is a powerful option as it can measure the number of CTCs, characterise the genomic alterations of the tumour, estimate the tumour’s proliferative capacity and measure prognostically useful gene signatures in a single test and from a blood sample.”
