Dr. Putcha on the Use of Blood-Based Screening Assays in CRC

Girish Putcha, MD, PhD, chief medical officer and clinical laboratory director, Freenome, discusses the use of blood-based screening assays in colorectal cancer (CRC).

The AI-EMERGE study (NCT03688906) utilized a blood-based screening test for early detection of CRC. The prospective, multicenter study enrolled a cohort of 43 asymptomatic patients with average risk and a cohort of 548 patients who served as the study control. The study sought to validate another method of screening in CRC.

The results showed high sensitivity and high specificity with the blood-based test in early-stage and late-stage CRC. These results suggest that the blood-based test, which accounted for tumor-derived and nontumor derived signals, could be a viable strategy for CRC screening in the future, concludes Putcha.