Not yet, according to Ben Ho Park, MD, the Benjamin F. Byrd Jr. Professor of Oncology and director of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
Tests that are “tumor-uninformed” — they don’t require a primary tumor — are being developed as cancer screening tests. But the tests aren’t sensitive and specific enough to reliably detect the small amounts of DNA that would be shed into the blood by early-stage tumors.
“They can work, but still lack diagnostic accuracy,” Park said. “Importantly, we do not know whether catching, let’s say breast cancer, that much earlier will actually improve outcomes compared to current mammography screening methods. So even if they had 100% sensitivity and specificity, whether that would be clinically meaningful, or simply drive up costs of testing and increase patient — and provider — anxiety, is still uncertain.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done in that area.”