{"entity":{"id":"paper-inspector-geneplus-cancer-commun-2025","kind":"paper","name":"The INSPECTOR study: enhanced feasibility for clinical translation of a multi-cancer early detection method based on enzyme-assisted high signal-to-noise ratio sequencing of methylated circulating tumor DNA","aka":[],"tldr":"A Chinese study with Geneplus-Beijing of a methylation blood test for eight cancers that found about eight in ten cancers, and about two in three stage I cancers, in people already diagnosed, at 99% specificity.","summary":"Luo and colleagues (Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center with Geneplus-Beijing) built a targeted panel of 155,362 methylated CpG sites, read by enzyme-assisted (human TET) methylation sequencing rather than bisulphite conversion, for eight cancers: lung, breast, colorectum, liver, oesophagus, stomach, pancreas and ovary. In multicentre case-control cohorts (1,071 participants for training, 581 for validation and 824 for independent validation) the test had 99.0% specificity and 81.9% sensitivity in the independent validation set. Sensitivity was 65.5% at stage I and 79.7% at stage II. The top predicted cancer origin was right in 87.4% in independent validation (94.5% within the top two).","asOf":"2026-11-03","links":[{"label":"Cancer Communications 2025: INSPECTOR","url":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cac2.70071"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41165038/"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":["early-detection"],"technologies":["mced","cfdna-methylation-testing"],"targets":[],"drugs":["inspector-mced"],"companies":["geneplus"],"institutions":["sysucc"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":["cancer-communications"],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"journal":"Cancer Communications","year":2025,"doi":"10.1002/cac2.70071","pmid":"41165038","authors":"Luo HY, Wei W, Li P, Zhang QH, et al.","paperType":"observational","findings":["Independent validation: 99.0% specificity, 81.9% sensitivity.","Stage I sensitivity 65.5%; stage II 79.7%.","Top predicted origin correct in 87.4% (top two: 94.5%)."],"whatItMeans":"A stage I figure this high comes from a case-control design with known cancers; the same tests usually find far fewer early cancers when they meet people without symptoms.","caveats":["Case-control cohorts; no screening population, no positive predictive value.","Six authors are Geneplus-Beijing employees."],"changedPractice":false},"route":"/key-papers/paper-inspector-geneplus-cancer-commun-2025/","neighbours":{"section":[{"id":"early-detection","kind":"section","name":"Early Detection & Screening","route":"/fronts/early-detection/"}],"technology":[{"id":"cfdna-methylation-testing","kind":"technology","name":"Cell-free DNA methylation tests","route":"/technologies/cfdna-methylation-testing/"},{"id":"mced","kind":"technology","name":"Multi-cancer early detection (MCED)","route":"/technologies/mced/"}],"drug":[{"id":"inspector-mced","kind":"drug","name":"INSPECTOR methylation test (Geneplus)","route":"/drugs/inspector-mced/"}],"company":[{"id":"geneplus","kind":"company","name":"Geneplus-Beijing","route":"/companies/geneplus/"}],"institution":[{"id":"sysucc","kind":"institution","name":"Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/sysucc/"}],"journal":[{"id":"cancer-communications","kind":"journal","name":"Cancer communications","route":"/journals/cancer-communications/"}]}}