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SUMMARY:Towards cancer screening using circulating DNA - Y M Dennis Lo\, L
 i Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences\, The Chinese University of Hong K
 ong\, Prince of Wales Hospital\, Shatin\, New Territories\, Hong Kong SAR\
 , China
DTSTART:20181025T120000Z
DTEND:20181025T130000Z
UID:TALK74371@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Kate Davenport
DESCRIPTION:There is much recent interest in the use of circulating DNA in
  plasma for performing liquid biopsies for cancer. However\, most of the p
 ublished efforts are for the investigation of patients who have already be
 en diagnosed to have cancer. There is much less information on the use of 
 circulating DNA for the screening of cancer. My laboratory has developed t
 he use of circulating Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA as a biomarker for EBV-
 associated malignancies\, especially for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). W
 e have just completed a large scale trial of using plasma EBV DNA in the s
 creening of NPC in asymptomatic individuals. Our data indicate that using 
 this approach\, one can shift the stage distribution at diagnosis from 20%
  early stage diseases in an unscreened population to 70% early stage disea
 ses in a screened population. Furthermore\, NPC subjects whose cancer were
  detected by plasma EBV DNA screening had a much better prognosis than tho
 se NPC patients who were not screened. The implication of this work to can
 cer screening in the context of NPC and for other cancers will be discusse
 d.
LOCATION:CRUK CI Lecture Theatre
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