# Non-invasive early detection of cancer four years before conventional diagnosis using a blood test

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-panseer-nat-commun-2020/  
OnCo record `paper-panseer-nat-commun-2020` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Singlera's PanSeer methylation test, run on stored blood from a Chinese cohort, flagged most people who went on to be diagnosed with one of five cancers within four years.

## Summary

In the Taizhou Longitudinal Study, 123,115 healthy people gave plasma for storage and were followed for cancer. PanSeer, a circulating tumour DNA methylation test, was run on samples from 605 asymptomatic individuals, 191 of whom were later diagnosed with stomach, oesophageal, colorectal, lung or liver cancer within four years, plus 223 cancer patients and 200 tissues. It detected the five cancers in 88% (95% CI 80 to 93) of post-diagnosis patients at 96% specificity (93 to 98), and in 95% (89 to 98) of asymptomatic individuals later diagnosed; the authors state that future longitudinal studies are required to confirm this result.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-10-29
- Journal: Nature Communications
- Year: 2020
- DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17316-z
- Authors: Chen X, Gole J, Gore A, et al.
- Findings: 88% sensitivity in post-diagnosis patients at 96% specificity.; 95% of asymptomatic people later diagnosed were positive on stored samples.
- What it means: An eye-catching result from a nested case-control analysis of stored samples; it has not been reproduced in a prospective screening study.
- Caveats: Nested case-control, 191 future cases; specificity of 96% would mean 4 in 100 false positives in screening.; Authors' own call for confirmation.

## Sources

- Nature Communications 2020: PanSeer: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17316-z
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32694610/

## Connected records

- fronts: [Early Detection & Screening](https://onco.cc/fronts/early-detection/)
- technologies: [Cell-free DNA methylation tests](https://onco.cc/technologies/cfdna-methylation-testing/), [Multi-cancer early detection (MCED)](https://onco.cc/technologies/mced/)
- drugs: [PanSeer](https://onco.cc/drugs/panseer/)
- companies: [Singlera Genomics](https://onco.cc/companies/singlera/)
- journals: [Nature Communications](https://onco.cc/journals/nature-communications/)

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