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New Radiotracer Can Identify Nearly 30 Types of Cancer

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Re: New Radiotracer Can Identify Nearly 30 Types of Cancer

#11

Post by sjg007 »

legohead wrote: post #5

Anyone have any experience getting tested for cancer when marked as "healthy"? I contacted my PCP and some other random places asking to get a cancer screening and nobody would give me the time of day - "that's not done". At most they said they would do a blood test which checks for a couple types of cancer. I asked if I could get a CT and have a professional go over it. nope. But something like this tracer is what I…

The Iatrogenic risk is too high. CT and MRIs have false positives or reveal benign tumors/conditions that have to be investigated which result in additional testing, surgery etc... So in the absence of symptoms or known genetics / family history it is just not done. But fear not, in the next 20 years we will likely have blood based tests for finding some early cancers though.

You should ask yourself why do you want to get checked for cancer.

Re: New Radiotracer Can Identify Nearly 30 Types of Cancer

#12

Post by nradov »

legohead wrote: post #5

Anyone have any experience getting tested for cancer when marked as "healthy"? I contacted my PCP and some other random places asking to get a cancer screening and nobody would give me the time of day - "that's not done". At most they said they would do a blood test which checks for a couple types of cancer. I asked if I could get a CT and have a professional go over it. nope. But something like this tracer is what I…

A CT scan involves some radiation exposure so it would be unethical for a doctor to order one unless you're at high risk of cancer or have some other symptoms.

Re: New Radiotracer Can Identify Nearly 30 Types of Cancer

#13

Post by frisco »

legohead wrote: post #5

Anyone have any experience getting tested for cancer when marked as "healthy"? I contacted my PCP and some other random places asking to get a cancer screening and nobody would give me the time of day - "that's not done". At most they said they would do a blood test which checks for a couple types of cancer. I asked if I could get a CT and have a professional go over it. nope. But something like this tracer is what I…

I did Health Nucleus which includes a whole body MRI (no ionizing radiation exposure) and a bunch of other stuff geared towards looking for cancer. Apparently Prenuvo in Vancouver is considered the best now. It’s a few $k and insurance doesn’t cover it, but there are a bunch of options for self-pay to be more aggressive in primary care / health surveillance.

This stuff about “overtesting” and “iatrogenic risk” is silly. It’s one of the biggest misconceptions in medicine today. Every test has a sensitivity and a specificity and must be interpreted accordingly. Not doing that properly is a doctor problem not a test problem. In terms of spurious findings, it is usually possible to stack diagnostics until the answer becomes clear. There are lots of things between a CT and a biopsy.

Re: New Radiotracer Can Identify Nearly 30 Types of Cancer

#14

Post by Randypea »

legohead wrote: post #5

Anyone have any experience getting tested for cancer when marked as "healthy"? I contacted my PCP and some other random places asking to get a cancer screening and nobody would give me the time of day - "that's not done". At most they said they would do a blood test which checks for a couple types of cancer. I asked if I could get a CT and have a professional go over it. nope. But something like this tracer is what I…

There are a number of different blood tests for these 30 cancer types, each of which can detect a high likelihood of cancer. Each blood test tells you YES or NO. Then this type of radiotracer scan will tell you WHERE. Toray Japan is developing this test: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Japan-s-Toray-see... Until this is available you could ask your PCP for the corresponding blood test for all the types of cancer you want to check.

Re: New Radiotracer Can Identify Nearly 30 Types of Cancer

#15

Post by lipman »

Randypea wrote: post #4

I was diagnosed with NET cancer recently and my doctor incorrectly ordered the older radiotracer scan. It only showed 1/2 of my tumors, missing the most important primary tumor. This newer scan/radiotracer showed double the number of tumors including the most important step of finding the primary. I will soon have cytoreduction surgery to remove the tumors. Unless you have other biomarkers showing cancer, the issue f…

Thanks for sharing. You got FDG PET ("older") as well as FAPI? Are you in the US? Curious if FAPI is already in wide use.... does FDG not work that well for NET ?

Re: New Radiotracer Can Identify Nearly 30 Types of Cancer

#16

Post by asdf21 »

sjg007 wrote: post #11
legohead wrote: post #5

Anyone have any experience getting tested for cancer when marked as "healthy"? I contacted my PCP and some other random places asking to get a cancer screening and nobody would give me the time of day - "that's not done". At most they said they would do a blood test which checks for a couple types of cancer. I asked if I could get a CT and have a professional go over it. nope. But something like this tracer is what I…

The Iatrogenic risk is too high. CT and MRIs have false positives or reveal benign tumors/conditions that have to be investigated which result in additional testing, surgery etc... So in the absence of symptoms or known genetics / family history it is just not done. But fear not, in the next 20 years we will likely have blood based tests for finding some early cancers though. You should ask yourself why do you want t…

Shouldn't everyone want to be checked for it?

I spend 10000x more time and effort monitoring the health and performance indicators of my servers compared to my body, it's astoundingly ignorant that we aren't more honed in on early detection for all sorts of issues.

Re: New Radiotracer Can Identify Nearly 30 Types of Cancer

#17

Post by lipman »

hsavit1 wrote: post #7

Have been chatting with a radiation oncologist about this. His response: "imaging appears to be the same as F18-FDG-based PET. Just a bit more convenient since the patient doesn't need a normal blood sugar. And prob 2-10x the price"

Seems like in certain tumor types it's better than FDG - still looking into it myself. Is FAPI available in the US already?

Re: New Radiotracer Can Identify Nearly 30 Types of Cancer

#18

Post by nkrumm »

legohead wrote: post #5

Anyone have any experience getting tested for cancer when marked as "healthy"? I contacted my PCP and some other random places asking to get a cancer screening and nobody would give me the time of day - "that's not done". At most they said they would do a blood test which checks for a couple types of cancer. I asked if I could get a CT and have a professional go over it. nope. But something like this tracer is what I…

MD here. It's "not done" because it could hurt you.

Here's the Bayesian argument:

- Let's assume a lab test (or imaging test) has a 1% false positive rate and 100% sensitivity (that would be pretty good for many tests and imaging modalities!).

- The cancer you screening for has a 1% incidence as well (low-ish, for the sake of argument).

- Therefore the chance that a "positive" scan would be due to a false positive or a true cancer would be equivalent (i.e., the Positive Predictive Value is 50%).

If we did this at population level, we'd be massively overtreating and over-biopsy-ing... not the desired outcome.

Re: New Radiotracer Can Identify Nearly 30 Types of Cancer

#19

Post by nradov »

Randypea wrote: post #14
legohead wrote: post #5

Anyone have any experience getting tested for cancer when marked as "healthy"? I contacted my PCP and some other random places asking to get a cancer screening and nobody would give me the time of day - "that's not done". At most they said they would do a blood test which checks for a couple types of cancer. I asked if I could get a CT and have a professional go over it. nope. But something like this tracer is what I…

There are a number of different blood tests for these 30 cancer types, each of which can detect a high likelihood of cancer. Each blood test tells you YES or NO. Then this type of radiotracer scan will tell you WHERE. Toray Japan is developing this test: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Japan-s-Toray-see... Until this is available you could ask your PCP for the corresponding blood test for all the types of…

Blood tests really don't tell you yes or no. They give you quantified biomarker concentrations which are correlated with certain types of cancer. In some cases the diagnosis is clear, but often it's more of a gray area.

Re: New Radiotracer Can Identify Nearly 30 Types of Cancer

#20

Post by asdf21 »

nkrumm wrote: post #18
legohead wrote: post #5

Anyone have any experience getting tested for cancer when marked as "healthy"? I contacted my PCP and some other random places asking to get a cancer screening and nobody would give me the time of day - "that's not done". At most they said they would do a blood test which checks for a couple types of cancer. I asked if I could get a CT and have a professional go over it. nope. But something like this tracer is what I…

MD here. It's "not done" because it could hurt you. Here's the Bayesian argument: - Let's assume a lab test (or imaging test) has a 1% false positive rate and 100% sensitivity (that would be pretty good for many tests and imaging modalities!). - The cancer you screening for has a 1% incidence as well (low-ish, for the sake of argument). - Therefore the chance that a "positive" scan would be due to a false positive or…

This would also force advancements in the field re: distinguishing false positives.

More information is better than less, imo.

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