SU2C Gastric Cancer Interception Research Team: Early Detection and Interception of Diffuse and Intestinal Gastric Cancer
Sandra Ryeom, PhD
University of Pennsylvania
Andrew T. Chan, MD, MPH
Massachusetts General Hospital
Research
The SU2C Gastric Cancer Interception Research Team is developing news ways to spot the cancer early when it can be more successfully treated. This includes identifying ctDNA and cells that break off from the tumors and circulate in the blood. If these can be definitely tied to gastric tumors, then they can be used as biomarkers to indicate the presence of disease. They have developed a new imaging agent and a tiny, pill-sized camera that could also be used to perform imaging of stomach tissue at risk of developing cancer. The team will validate its new methods in a clinical trial. Once available at the clinical level, doctors could use these methods to screen people in populations at risk of developing gastric cancer – such as people with a hereditary predisposition – and catch the problem at an early date.