A novel artificial intelligence (AI) blood testing technology developed by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center has been shown to detect over 90% of lung cancers in samples from nearly 800 individuals with and without cancer. The test approach, called DELFI (DNA evaluation of fragments for early interception), spots unique patterns in the fragmentation of DNA that is shed from cancer cells circulating in the bloodstream, or cell free DNA (cfDNA). A study reported in Nature Communications has now demonstrated how testing for fragmentation features, in combination with evaluating clinical risk factors, analyzing a protein biomarker, and CT imaging, enabled detection of 94% of patients with cancer across stages and subtypes. Reporting on the study, senior author Victor E. Velculescu, MD, PhD, first author Dimitrios Mathios, PhD, and colleagues, concluded, "The observations that scalable and cost-effective noninvasive cfDNA fragmentation analyses can discriminate lung cancer patients from noncancer individuals may ultimately provide an opportunity to evaluate not only high-risk individuals but the general population for lung cancer." Their paper is titled, "Detection and characterization of lung cancer using cell-free DNA fragmentomes."

A research team from Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center found that the AI blood testing solution was able to detect over 90% of lung cancers in samples from nearly 800 individuals with and without cancer. The research findings have been published in Nature Communications. Known as DELFI (DNA evaluation of fragments for early interception), the test is designed to detect unique patterns in the fragmentation of DNA shed from cancer cells circulating in the bloodstream. Researchers applied the DELFI technology to blood samples taken from 796 individuals in Denmark, the Netherlands, and the USA. They determined that the DELFI approach accurately distinguished between patients with and without lung cancer.

A novel artificial intelligence blood testing technology developed by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center was found to detect over 90% of lung cancers in samples from nearly 800 individuals with and without cancer. The test approach, called DELFI (DNA evaluation of fragments for early interception), spots unique patterns in the fragmentation of DNA shed from cancer cells circulating in the bloodstream. Applying this technology to blood samples taken from 796 individuals in Denmark, the Netherlands and the U.S., investigators found that the DELFI approach accurately distinguished between patients with and without lung cancer. Combining the test with analysis of clinical risk factors, a protein biomarker, and followed by computed tomography imaging, DELFI helped detect 94% of patients with cancer across stages and subtypes. This included 91% of patients with earlier or less invasive stage I/II cancers and 96% of patients with more advanced stage III/IV cancers.