{"entity":{"id":"paper-hrc-test-oct4a-stem-cell-rev-2021","kind":"paper","name":"Quest for Pan-Cancer Diagnosis/Prognosis Ends with HrC Test Measuring Oct4A in Peripheral Blood","aka":[],"tldr":"Epigeneres, a Mumbai company, describes a blood test that scores the activity of an embryonic gene, OCT-4A, and claims it detects and stages any cancer; the paper is a description with case studies, not a validation study with accuracy figures.","summary":"Tripathi and colleagues (Epigeneres Biotech, Mumbai) describe the HrC scale, which converts the fold change of OCT-4A expression in peripheral blood into a score from non-cancer (0 to 2) through inflammation, high risk and stages I to IV (above 40). The authors report an initial study in 120 known cancer patients, validation of the scale in 1,000 people (500 with and 500 without cancer) and ten case studies, and say the test can detect and classify solid tumours, blood cancers and sarcomas by stage. The abstract gives no sensitivity or specificity.","asOf":"2026-11-03","links":[{"label":"Stem Cell Reviews and Reports 2021","url":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12015-021-10167-1"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33954878/"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":["early-detection"],"technologies":["mced"],"targets":[],"drugs":["hrc-test"],"companies":["epigeneres"],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"journal":"Stem Cell Reviews and Reports","year":2021,"doi":"10.1007/s12015-021-10167-1","pmid":"33954878","authors":"Tripathi V, Bhartiya D, Vaid A, Chhabria S, et al.","paperType":"observational","findings":["Scale from 0 to above 40 linked to non-cancer, inflammation, high risk and stages I to IV.","Validation in 500 people with and 500 without cancer reported without accuracy figures in the abstract."],"whatItMeans":"A company's own account of its test, with no accuracy figures in the abstract; the claim that one marker detects and stages every cancer has not been independently tested.","caveats":["Company-authored; no sensitivity or specificity in the abstract.","Case studies rather than a blinded diagnostic accuracy study."],"changedPractice":false,"participants":1000},"route":"/key-papers/paper-hrc-test-oct4a-stem-cell-rev-2021/","neighbours":{"section":[{"id":"early-detection","kind":"section","name":"Early Detection & Screening","route":"/fronts/early-detection/"}],"technology":[{"id":"mced","kind":"technology","name":"Multi-cancer early detection (MCED)","route":"/technologies/mced/"}],"drug":[{"id":"hrc-test","kind":"drug","name":"HrC test (Epigeneres)","route":"/drugs/hrc-test/"}],"company":[{"id":"epigeneres","kind":"company","name":"Epigeneres Biotech","route":"/companies/epigeneres/"}]}}