DCU, Trinity and UCD researchers target rising bowel cancer rates with new blood test
The team, working with clinicians at St. Vincent’s University Hospital, seeks to transform cancer outcomes by moving screening away from invasive or unpleasant methods to their simple, high-accuracy blood test, named “CASPDx CRC”.
The CASPDx team is now initiating the formal validation of their product. Patients are being recruited in all Bowel Screen Centres in the HSE Dublin & South East region as part of clinical validation studies, with assistance of the UCD Clinical Research Centre. While the CASPDx CRC test is still at clinical validation and immunoassay development phases, the team aim to launch the test and spin-out as a company by the end of 2027.
Dr Paul Leonard from the School of Biotechnology will work alongside Scientific Lead Dr Emma Creagh from Trinity College Dublin, Commercial Lead Dr Kieran Clarke, and Prof Glen Doherty from St Vincent's Hospital.
CRC: late detection and low screening uptake
CRC is the second leading cause of cancer mortality globally, according to the World Health Organisation. Despite being highly treatable when caught early, over 60% of cases are currently diagnosed at a late stage.
Another problem comes from the current screening options, which rely on invasive colonoscopies or unpopular stool-based kits. These consequently suffer from low patient uptake, resulting in over one-third of eligible individuals skipping screening entirely. Notably, existing tests also lack accuracy and miss early cases.
And while there are some novel tests with increased accuracy, these are cost-prohibitive for use in national screening programmes and many are only available in the US.
But high incidence also translates into high costs, with CRC estimated to have cost the EU €19 billion in 2020, according to a report by non-profit organisation Digestive Cancers Europe.
Dr Paul Leonard said:
“Our goal is to make colorectal cancer screening as simple and accessible as a routine blood test, enabling earlier detection and significantly improving patient outcomes.”
Worrying trends in younger people
The rates of early-onset CRC (diagnosis in individuals under 50 years old) has almost doubled over the last 30 years, and by 2030 it is anticipated that early-onset CRC will be one of the leading causes of death for adults between the ages of 20-49 unless cancer is caught at an earlier stage.
CRC in younger people tends to be uncovered at a more advanced stage primarily due to lower screening rates as most programmes start from 50 years onwards (58 in Ireland)
Once diagnosed, early onset CRC tends to be characterised by more aggressive features making accessible, early-stage detection more critical than ever to catch the cancer at an earlier stage when it is treatable and outcomes are greatly improved.