A simple lateral flow test that can detect brain tumors at home is being developed by scientists.
The life-saving test could quickly alert people with aggressive, recurring brain tumors if a tumor returns.
The test has been developed for glioblastoma – the type of aggressive brain tumor that affects around 2,200 people in Britain every year and which recurs in around 75 per cent of cases.
People currently often wait three to six months between MRI scans to see if a tumor has grown again.
Therefore, a test they could do a few times a week would reduce their anxiety and detect a tumor much faster – while surgery is still possible or a treatment such as radiation or chemotherapy will work better.
Scientists develop the world’s first lateral flow test to detect brain tumors
The lateral flow test, similar to that used for Covid, involves taking a drop of blood instead of a nasal swab and providing a result within seconds.
It looks for a molecule called protoporphyrin IX, a central component of red blood cells. Some experts believe that brain tumor cells, unlike normal cells, give up a key function of helping the body produce red blood cells.
So there may be more protoporphyrin IX in the body, unused by red blood cells, when a person’s brain tumor returns.
The test is expected to be used in the coming months on blood samples from 60 people, with and without brain tumors, to see how well the test works.
Professor Philippe Wilson, member of the team that produced the test at Nottingham Trent University, said: ‘This test will save the lives of people with aggressive brain tumors who know there is a good chance of a tumor coming back, so be prepared for a ticking time bomb .
‘Currently someone can have an MRI scan, but then the tumor can come back the next day, and they won’t know that until the next scan.
‘It would be of great reassurance if we could monitor the return of the cancer at home using a cheap test that we are all now accustomed to using.’
Normal cells in the body, including brain cells, produce chemicals that are used to grow individual red blood cells.
They do this because they need red blood cells to transport oxygen from the heart and provide them with energy.
But it is believed that brain tumor cells behave strangely and may give up the activity of helping red blood cells grow and focus on other processes, such as multiplying to form larger tumors.
With fewer normal brain cells and more brain tumor cells, the amount of protoporphyrin IX needed for red blood cells is lower. So it potentially remains unused in the body, at a higher level.
Scientists only discovered this in recent years and are now using the knowledge to create a test for protoporphyrin IX.
People currently often wait three to six months between MRI scans to see if a tumor has grown again
This includes an antibody that attaches to protoporphyrin IX with 100 percent accuracy, early analyzes show, so it can be isolated and measured.
The researchers, whose work has not yet been published in a journal or reviewed by other scientists, say the test could later be used for other cancers, looking for different molecules in blood or saliva whose levels change due to different types cancer.
But it is first being developed for gliobastoma, which causes nearly 200,000 deaths per year worldwide.
Dr. Ola Rominiyi, co-author of the study from the University of Sheffield’s School of Medicine and Population Health, said: ‘Currently patients often have follow-up MRI scans every three to six months, but the successful development of a lateral flow test Detecting brain cancer could make it possible to efficiently test for recurrence every week, so that more recurrent tumors are detected early, at a more treatable stage.’