Developing New Tests to Find and Defeat Cancer at Earliest Stages

By Mayo Clinic Laboratories • May 4, 2017

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Mammography and other screening tools have made great strides in finding cancer early, when it is most likely to be successfully treated. However, some early-stage cancers are missed by conventional screening and are only detected when symptoms occur. Mayo Clinic and other research institutions are wondering: Could a blood test complement current practice to improve rates of early detection and find a cure?

Research suggests that novel blood tests may be able to find cancer early, by identifying small pieces of genetic material shed by tumors. Mayo Clinic is collaborating with Grail, a life science company, and Sutter Health of California, on the STRIVE clinical research study to facilitate the development of Grail’s blood tests for early-stage cancer detection.

Minetta Liu, M.D.; Fergus Couch, Ph.D.; and Celine Vachon, Ph.D., are leading the STRIVE study at Mayo Clinic. The study will enroll 40,000 women at the time of screening mammography over the next 15 months at Mayo Clinic’s campuses in Rochester, Minnesota; Jacksonville, Florida; and Phoenix, Arizona; as well as at the Mayo Clinic Health System Franciscan Healthcare locations in La Crosse and Onalaska, Wisconsin.

Sutter Health will enroll another 80,000 women at locations in California during that same time frame. Participants will provide blood samples, complete an electronic questionnaire, and allow for follow-up regarding their clinical outcomes. Learn more about this study in Grail’s news release.

The Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine (CIM) has been an early supporter of the STRIVE study. Mayo Clinic has placed a high priority on being a leader in the development of blood tests for the most effective detection and treatment of breast and other cancers. Use of such tests should improve the sensitivity of early cancer detection and will allow monitoring of existing cancers for remission, recurrence, and therapeutic choice without the need for an invasive biopsy.

With these goals in mind, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center investigators have collaborated with the biotechnology company Grail to develop and initiate this study. CIM facilitated the rapid launch of this study within Mayo Clinic by providing early funding and internal project management support.

This post originally appeared on the Center for Individualized Medicine's blog.

Mayo Clinic Laboratories

This post was authored by the Marketing Team at Mayo Clinic Laboratories.