The development of a simple blood test for glioblastomas (GBMs) could mean earlier diagnosis and more effective and personalised treatment options.
Bristol-led research involved the development of mathematical models to assess the current use of biomarkers in the detection of GBMs and how such biomarker-based strategies can be improved.
This research is part of a wider University of Bristol-led CRUK project to develop an affordable, point of care blood test to diagnose brain tumours. This cross-disciplinary project combines biomarker discovery, development of fluorescent nanoparticle and new testing techniques with computational modelling.
The findings provide the basis for further clinical data on the impact of lowering the current detection threshold for the known biomarker, GFAP, to allow earlier detection of GBMs using blood tests. With further experimental data, it may also be possible to quantify tumour and patient heterogeneities and incorporate errors into our models and predictions for blood levels for different tumours.
Paper: ‘Liquid biopsies for early diagnosis of brain tumours: in-silico mathematical biomarker modelling,’ by Blee, J; Lui, X; Harland, A; Fatania, K; Currie, S; Kurain, K and Hauert, S in The Royal Society Interface.