CancerLocator: non-invasive cancer diagnosis and tissue-of-origin prediction using methylation profiles of cell-free DNA
Abstract
We propose a probabilistic method, CancerLocator, which exploits the diagnostic potential of cell-free DNA by determining not only the presence but also the location of tumors. CancerLocator simultaneously infers the proportions and the tissue-of-origin of tumor-derived cell-free DNA in a blood sample using genome-wide DNA methylation data. CancerLocator outperforms two established multi-class classification methods on simulations and real data, even with the low proportion of tumor-derived DNA in the cell-free DNA scenarios. CancerLocator also achieves promising results on patient plasma samples with low DNA methylation sequencing coverage.
In the News
We recently published CancerLocator, and the article was rated as a “breakthrough” by a wide range of news and media. Recently, we have further developed several experimental and computational technologies for CancerLocator, significantly enhancing the diagnostic accuracy while reducing the cost.
The founder of EarlyDx, Jasmine Zhou, gave an invited talk at AACR 2018 on the recent development of CancerLocator in the session “Liquid Biopsy Meets Cancer Epigenenomics”
Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) consists of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragments that are released from tumor cells into the bloodstream. ctDNA harbors cancer-specific genetic and epigenetic alterations that allow its detection and quantification using a [...]
The founder of EarlyDx, Jasmine Zhou, gave an invited talk at Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference on CancerLocator.
Since its debut in 1993, the annual Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference has become one of the world's leading international events in the field of drug discovery, development and diagnostics. The Tri-Conference unites an ecosystem of [...]
Digital Trends: Groundbreaking new technique can pinpoint the location of cancer using nothing more than a blood test
Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California have developed a one-two punch to help doctors diagnose cancer. They’ve called the computer program CancerLocator, and it simultaneously detects cancer [...]
Motherboard: This Computer Program Detects Cancer Earlier Than Ever—Without Surgery
Cancer is often found when someone starts to feel symptoms—pain, an abnormal growth, or maybe just fatigue. Now scientists have developed a computer program that could identify and locate cancer even before symptoms arise, [...]
Wall Street Hedge: The CancerLocator Tool is able to Diagnose Cancer
Scientists developed CancerLocator tool to diagnose cancer non-evasively. The study implies the analysis of blood samples was indicating whether they contain tumor DNA and also in which tissue the tumor is located. The new [...]
The Telegraph: Blood test detects cancer and pinpoints location…before symptoms appear
Ablood test which not only detects cancer but identifies where it is in the body, has been developed by scientists. The breakthrough could allow doctors to diagnose specific cancers much earlier, even before signs such [...]
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