Dr. Putcha on Blood-Based Detection of Early-Stage CRC

Girish Putcha, MD, PhD, chief medical officer and clinical laboratory director, Freenome, discusses blood-based detection of early-stage colorectal cancer (CRC) using multiomics and machine learning.

Asymptomatic patients are recommended to undergo routine screening for CRC. However, current screening modalities pose several challenges, which have led to suboptimal screening rates. To overcome the barriers of current screening methods, investigators developed a noninvasive, blood-based screening test with high sensitivity and specificity, says Putcha.

The screening test is unique in that it accounts for tumor-derived and nontumor-derived immune signals, which could lead to better assessment of the biological heterogeneity of the disease and provide wider utility in early-stage and advanced CRC, concludes Putcha.