A patent for technology to detect the early stages of cancer before physical symptoms ever appear was awarded to Kansas State University www.k-state.edu. Several professors developed the nanoplatform technology capable of detecting human cancer cells and tumors in the beginning stages. This technology makes it possible to diagnose a cancer type even if a patient is not showing physical symptoms associated with cancer.
The patent was issued to the Kansas State University Research Foundation www.k-state.edu/tech.transfer, responsible for managing technology transfer activities at the university. Patents have also been awarded in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the U.K.
A sample of a patient’s blood is taken and then converted into a blood serum to perform tests with enzymes that are in the bloodstream. Each enzyme is analyzed and compared to the enzyme pattern of different tumor types. Each type of cancer has a unique protease signature, similar to a genetic fingerprint registered in a database.
“Since we are able to detect virtually all solid tumors at stage 1 during routine blood testing, this cost-effective technology used with established cancer technologies has the potential of saving half the lives of those diagnosed with cancer during the next decade,” reports Stepfan H. Bossmann Professor of Chemistry and one of the developers of the technology.
Bossmann and Deryl L. Troyer, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology are currently collaborating with China’s first Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University to conduct double-blind cancer detection tests.
Double-blind tests are one of the most stringent testing procedures as neither the test participants nor the administrators know who is in the control group and who is in the experimental group. If the researcher’s detection test achieves a high accuracy rate, it will likely become a viable medical test for physicians in the U.S. and across the world.
So far, protease measurements of more than 10,000 patients at Kunming have shown that bladder, breast, cervical, colorectal, endometrial, fibroid, gallbladder, non-small lung, ovarian, and prostate cancers all feature unique protease signatures which permit their identification in early stages.
The researchers received support to develop the test through NSF, NIH’s Phase II SBIR program, Johnson Cancer Research Center at Kansas State, and the Kansas Department of Commerce.
The patent 8,969,027 titled “Fluorescence Assays for Serine Porteases” is currently available to license through Kansas State University Institute for Commercialization www.k-state.edu/ic by contacting 785-542-3900 or by email at ic@K-state.edu.