Study discussant David G. Huntsman, MD, Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Contextual Genomics, noted the positive predictive value of DETECT-A was 19%, which increased to 41% with the addition of positron-emission tomography/computed tomography. He pointed out that most cancers detected by the blood-based screening test were local or regional. When the test was combined with conventional screening methods, the number of cancers doubled.
David G. Huntsman, MD
Dr. Huntsman cited the following unanswered questions:
DISCLOSURE: Dr. Huntsman is Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Contextual Genomics.
A large, “first-of-its-kind” trial showed that a blood test could identify cancers in women with no history of cancer and who were asymptomatic. Of about 10,000 women enrolled in the study, 134 had positive results on blood screening; 26 of these women were found to have cancers. Conventional...