Blood Test Could Help Detect Cancer Earlier In People With Nonspecific Symptoms (theguardian.com) 38
Slashdot reader eastlight_jim writes:
Scientists from the University of Oxford have today published a study in Clinical Cancer Research which shows that they can use a technique called NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) metabolomics analysis to identify patients with cancer. Specifically, they identify patients with cancer from within a population of generally unwell patients with non-specific symptoms like fatigue and weigh-loss — a traditionally hard-to-diagnose cohort.
The technique works because the NMR identifies small molecules called metabolites in the blood of patients and this information can then be used by machine learning to recognise patterns of metabolites specific to cancer, as well as identifying patients whose cancer has already spread.
The Guardian reports: If validated, the test could enable cancer patients to be identified earlier, when they are more likely to respond to treatment, and help flag up who could benefit from early access to drugs designed to tackle metastatic cancer.
The test can also tell if the disease has spread.
There is currently no clear route through which someone with nonspecific symptoms that could be cancer is referred for further investigation.... "The problem we've had in the past is that if they do have cancer, that cancer is growing all the time, and when they come back the cancers are often quite advanced," said Dr James Larkin, of the University of Oxford, who was involved in the research. Although it is difficult to know precisely how many individuals fall into this category, "it is likely to be tens of thousands of patients across the UK," Larkin said.
The technique works because the NMR identifies small molecules called metabolites in the blood of patients and this information can then be used by machine learning to recognise patterns of metabolites specific to cancer, as well as identifying patients whose cancer has already spread.
The Guardian reports: If validated, the test could enable cancer patients to be identified earlier, when they are more likely to respond to treatment, and help flag up who could benefit from early access to drugs designed to tackle metastatic cancer.
The test can also tell if the disease has spread.
There is currently no clear route through which someone with nonspecific symptoms that could be cancer is referred for further investigation.... "The problem we've had in the past is that if they do have cancer, that cancer is growing all the time, and when they come back the cancers are often quite advanced," said Dr James Larkin, of the University of Oxford, who was involved in the research. Although it is difficult to know precisely how many individuals fall into this category, "it is likely to be tens of thousands of patients across the UK," Larkin said.
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>New York hospitals admit that nearly HALF of their 'covid' patients were admitted for other reasons
Why are you surprised that a lot of their patients that were not admitted for 'covid' also have COVID?
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Re: Reee? (Score:2)
It's depressing that I could have a pet parrot with more linguistic skills than half of /.
Re: Reee? (Score:1)
I think Theranos would like to have a word with this companyâ¦
Just from experience (Score:3)
I'm a cancer survivor (neuroblastoma) and every year when I go for my check up, my insurance (Cigna) fights tooth and nail to avoid paying for any type of blood test, even though I have the highest plan offered by my employer (PPO). I expect others will run into the same issue in countries that don't provide free medical care.
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Hospitals get kick backs for covid patients. They have to prioritize what makes them money.
Ah yes. It is all a Chinese conspiracy to enrich U.S hospitals.
Re: Just from experience (Score:2)
It all makes sense now. See if they enrich the hospital, all those little things we don't make in America, like masks get brought up like hot cakes... it's diabolical.
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I think you are getting your conspiracies confused. The payments to hospitals is s greedy corporations things where the government would be sued for limiting outpatient services in order to reserve capacity for covid patients.
The Chinese conspiracy is a population conspiracy similar to the US's problem with social security going broke. Except years of China's one child policy and forced abortions have compounded it to such a higher degree.
In case you weren't aware, the problem is with seniors leaving the w
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>Hospitals get kick backs for covid patients.
Aren't kickbacks illegal? Do you have any links?
>They have to prioritize what makes them money.
I guess some admins might, but it's surely also that they need to charge extra when it costs more, like it's harder to deal with a patient infected with a contagious disease like COVID, especially in a hospital setting.
Re: Just from experience (Score:2)
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>Every vaccine administered is paid for by the government. Every covid patient treated gets funds from the government also.
Agreed, I assumed that's the case but those payments aren't kickbacks or bribes like the parent claimed they were.
Re: Just from experience (Score:2)
Re: Just from experience (Score:2)
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They are generally illegal for publicly funded medical treatment. They're also part of doing business in many industries, with conferences, samples, speaking engagements, and research funding awarded to medical personal and institutions that use the designated products. Novartis, for example, was successfully fined for providing kickbacks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/0... [nytimes.com]
Many things which are illegal are known and predictable parts of our economy.
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"Kickback" is way to strong and pejorative. Many plans, including Medicare/Medicaid have a defined reimbursement for a diagnosis, thus a person in the ICU on a respirator get the hospital paid X, a person in the ICU on a respirator with COVID gets the hospital paid 10X, at least in the beginning. I'm sure the reimbursement have equalize considerably since last year, to reflect the actual cost/labor differences more accurately.
Re: Just from experience (Score:2)
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Must be doing something wrong then, all we get are "lunch and Learns"
Re: Just from experience (Score:2)
Re: Just from experience (Score:2)
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I remember reading a Pop-Sci article (1980 ish) from one of the early researchers of the NMRI, and they were very hyped over the possibility of not only using the technology to identify cancers using NMRI spectroscopy, but being able to target specific chemical resonances in a treatment mode; which would damage cancer cells and only cancer cells. They were also using whole-body scans.
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Yes. 100% absolutely correct. Other countries like Canada and Australia and New Zealand will just take your freedoms and rule over you with an iron fist of authoritarianism in order to avoid investing in their public health systems.
Re: Just from experience (Score:2)
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Yeah, the UK increased the budgets for Healthcare back around 2005 or so after some serious shortcomings came to light in the US over the Obama care battles. They seem to have taken some sane reactionary responses to covid rules too.
Just remember, when you rely on government Healthcare, or even insurance companies to some extent for that matter, you are relying on the competence of politicians and their political allies to keep that system up and running.
That's sort of a problem in some areas. It's cheape
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I wonder if other countries have this problem like in Canada.
Enter the MR guy (Score:2)
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Well, it tells you that there IS cancer somewhere, which justifies spending time and money finding it. When all you have is a patient who's tired, it's hard to justify much more than another round of blood tests looking for increasingly rare conditions..
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Fantastic. (Score:2)
If you're at a loss of what your patient's problem may be then it seems like a great diagnostic tool, but more likely for for ruling out cancer (with 95% certainty) which lets them focus on other tests. However, if it is cancer and you are already experience weight-loss then the cancer has already grown significantly, so this is good news/bad news deal. I could be wrong but it's my understanding that the mass should be able to be spotted at this phase with other imaging technologies but those are up to in
NMR is ridiculous for this (Score:2)
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