New blood test could predict if you’ll develop cancer, heart failure and 65 other diseases ’10 years before they strike’

A BLOOD test could one day predict a person’s risk of 67 diseases up to ten years before they strike, scientists say.

They identified proteins in the blood that could help in the early diagnosis of conditions such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma, motor neurone disease and conditions of the heart and lungs.

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Many of the conditions, some of them rare, can currently take months, even years to diagnose.

The research, published in Nature Medicine, used data from the UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project.

It has measurements for approximately 3,000 plasma proteins from a random selection of more than 40,000 Brits whose health records were available. 

The protein data and linked health records were used to create models for the 10-year likelihood of patients developing 218 common and rare diseases. 

The model’s ability to diagnose was better than those based on standard, clinically recorded information, such as cholesterol, kidney function and diabetes, for 67 diseases.

For example, the researchers were able to pinpoint a specific blood protein seen at higher levels in Brits who were more likely to get multiple myeloma – a type of bone cancer – up to 10 years later.

The authors pinpointed a ‘signature’ of between five and 20 proteins most important in predicting each disease.

Several proteins are already used to aid diagnosis, such as the prostate-specific antigen for prostate cancer.

Lead author Professor Claudia, Queen Mary University of London, said: “Measuring one protein for a specific reason, such as troponin to diagnose a heart attack, is standard clinical practice.

“We are extremely excited about the opportunity to identify new markers for screening and diagnosis from the thousands of proteins circulating and now measurable in human blood.”

‘Extremely excited’

Spotting diseases early can allow patients to change their lifestyle or prevent medication to delay or ward off the condition.

First author Dr Julia Carrasco Zanini Sanchez added: “Several of our protein signatures performed similar or even better than proteins already trialled for their potential as screening tests, such a prostate-specific antigen for prostate cancer.

“We are therefore extremely excited about the opportunities that our protein signatures may have for earlier detection and ultimately improved prognosis for many diseases, including severe conditions such as multiple myeloma and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

“We identified so many promising examples, the next step is to select high priority diseases and evaluate their proteomic prediction in a clinical setting.”

Get on lifesaving drug trials faster

Being able to spot high-risk patients early could help pharmaceutical companies recruit sooner for trials and identify people who should be treated.

Dr Robert Scott, the co-lead author and the vice-president and head of Human Genetics and Genomics, at GSK, added: “A key challenge in drug development is the identification of patients most likely to benefit from new medicines.

“This work demonstrates the promise in the use of large-scale proteomic technologies to identify individuals at high risk across a wide range of diseases and aligns with our approach to use tech to deepen our understanding of human biology and disease.

“Further work will extend these insights and improve our understanding of how they are best applied to support improved success rates and increased efficiency in drug discovery and development.”