How Early Can Cancer Be Detected Before Symptoms Appear? Study Sheds Light

At the time of blood sample collection, eight of these 52 participants scored positively on a multicancer early detection (MCED) laboratory test. All eight were diagnosed within four months following blood collection. For six of the eight individuals, investigators also were able to assess additional blood samples collected 3.1-3.5 years prior to diagnosis, and in four of these cases, tumor-derived mutations could also be identified in samples taken at the earlier timepoint.

Investigators were surprised they could detect cancer-derived mutations in the blood so much earlier, says lead study author Yuxuan Wang, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "Three years earlier provides time for intervention. The tumors are likely to be much less advanced and more likely to be curable."

Reference: Yuxuan Wang, Corinne E. Joshu, Samuel D. Curtis, Christopher Douville, Vernon A. Burk, Meng Ru, Maria Popoli, Janine Ptak, Lisa Dobbyn, Natalie Silliman, Josef Coresh, Eric Boerwinkle, Anna Prizment, Chetan Bettegowda, Kenneth W. Kinzler, Nickolas Papadopoulos, Elizabeth A. Platz, Bert Vogelstein. Detection of cancers three years prior to diagnosis using plasma cell-free DNA. Cancer Discovery, 2025; DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-25-0375