New cancer screening network announced

Tom Vaughan

05 Mar 2024 — 1 min read

Fig 1. The Cancer Screening Research Network (CSRN) is comprised of the National Cancer Institute; a Statistics and Data Management Center; a Coordinating and Communication Center; and nine Accrual, Enrollment, and Screening Site Hubs.

In exciting news on the prevention/screening front, The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center is leading a new clinical trials consortium called the Cancer Screening Research Network (CSRN), established by the National Cancer Institute, with the aim of advancing President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative. The CSRN will focus on improving early cancer detection, reducing health inequities, and preventing cancer by evaluating emerging technologies for cancer screening. Fred Hutch will oversee the CSRN’s Coordinating and Communication Center and the Statistics and Data Management Center, focusing on Multi-Cancer Detection assays (MCDs) that identify cancer byproducts in bodily fluids. The research will assess the effectiveness of these tests in early cancer detection and their impact on reducing cancer-related deaths. The initiative emphasizes the importance of rigorous evaluation before promoting these tests in the community, with a key focus on health equity. The CSRN will engage diverse U.S. communities to ensure meaningful and unbiased evaluations of the technologies. The initial Vanguard study will recruit healthy participants aged 45 to 70 to assess a small number of MCD tests, with future trials likely to involve more participants and tests, hopefully including esophageal cancer. The goal is to determine if these tests can decrease illness and death due to cancer, addressing concerns such as potential false positives, impacts on standard-of-care screening, and health disparities.

Liquid biopsy to diagnose esophageal adenocarcinoma

This impressive multicenter study by Miyoshi et al. introduces a new diagnostic tool named EMERALD, which is a six-circulating miRNA signature designed to effectively differentiate patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and its precursor, Barrett's esophagus (BE), from non-disease controls. The research involved analyzing 792 patient samples across four

Neoplastic progression in young Barrett's patients

Esophageal adenocarcinoma is quite rare among persons younger than 40 years, but the consequences of the disease, including years of life lost, can be devastating. Due to its rarity there has been little research on how risk factors in young persons (e.g., Barrett's esophagus (BE), obesity, GERD,

Diagnosis and management of GERD

While most adults occasionally experience symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux, such as heartburn and regurgitation, approximately 20% (30 million people in the U.S.) experience these symptoms more frequently, ranging from once a week to multiple times a day. (1) Complications associated with GERD can include esophageal strictures, ulcers, and even

Ethics of screening based on race/ethnicity

This article explores some of the ethical implications of using race and ethnicity for cancer screening, using esophageal adenocarcinoma and gastric cancer as examples. It highlights the disparities in cancer incidence and mortality among different racial and ethnic groups and examines the potential benefits and drawbacks of screening based (in

Read more

Liquid biopsy to diagnose esophageal adenocarcinoma

Neoplastic progression in young Barrett's patients

Diagnosis and management of GERD

Ethics of screening based on race/ethnicity