{"id":34011,"date":"2026-02-03T18:24:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T18:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/?p=34011"},"modified":"2026-02-03T18:24:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T18:24:43","slug":"new-blood-test-tracks-epigenetic-instability-to-spot-early-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/new-blood-test-tracks-epigenetic-instability-to-spot-early-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"New Blood Test Tracks Epigenetic Instability to Spot Early Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-blockquote uagb-block-e7eb3fc3 uagb-blockquote__skin-border uagb-blockquote__stack-img-none\"><blockquote class=\"uagb-blockquote\"><div class=\"uagb-blockquote__content\">Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a blood test that looks for epigenetic instability in DNA, rather than fixed genetic changes, to flag early cancers. The approach could one day complement existing screening tools and help doctors decide who truly needs invasive follow-up tests.<\/div><footer><div class=\"uagb-blockquote__author-wrap uagb-blockquote__author-at-left\"><\/div><\/footer><\/blockquote><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-space-between is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-b0ffac9c wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\"><div style=\"font-size:16px\" class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-post-author\"><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-author__name\">The University Network<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share uagb-social-share__outer-wrap uagb-social-share__layout-horizontal uagb-block-ee584a31\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-ec619ce7\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"facebook\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path d=\"M504 256C504 119 393 8 256 8S8 119 8 256c0 123.8 90.69 226.4 209.3 245V327.7h-63V256h63v-54.64c0-62.15 37-96.48 93.67-96.48 27.14 0 55.52 4.84 55.52 4.84v61h-31.28c-30.8 0-40.41 19.12-40.41 38.73V256h68.78l-11 71.69h-57.78V501C413.3 482.4 504 379.8 504 256z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-32d99934\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"twitter\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path d=\"M389.2 48h70.6L305.6 224.2 487 464H345L233.7 318.6 106.5 464H35.8L200.7 275.5 26.8 48H172.4L272.9 180.9 389.2 48zM364.4 421.8h39.1L151.1 88h-42L364.4 421.8z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-1d136f14\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"linkedin\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 448 512\"><path d=\"M416 32H31.9C14.3 32 0 46.5 0 64.3v383.4C0 465.5 14.3 480 31.9 480H416c17.6 0 32-14.5 32-32.3V64.3c0-17.8-14.4-32.3-32-32.3zM135.4 416H69V202.2h66.5V416zm-33.2-243c-21.3 0-38.5-17.3-38.5-38.5S80.9 96 102.2 96c21.2 0 38.5 17.3 38.5 38.5 0 21.3-17.2 38.5-38.5 38.5zm282.1 243h-66.4V312c0-24.8-.5-56.7-34.5-56.7-34.6 0-39.9 27-39.9 54.9V416h-66.4V202.2h63.7v29.2h.9c8.9-16.8 30.6-34.5 62.9-34.5 67.2 0 79.7 44.3 79.7 101.9V416z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A new blood test from Johns Hopkins researchers may offer a powerful way to catch cancers earlier by looking not at fixed genetic mutations, but at how chaotic the chemical marks on DNA have become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The experimental test focuses on what the team calls epigenetic instability \u2014 random variation in DNA methylation patterns \u2014 and uses that signal to distinguish people with early-stage cancers from those without the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a proof-of-concept study, the approach accurately separated patients with early lung and breast cancers from healthy individuals, and also showed promise in several other cancer types. The findings were <a href=\"https:\/\/aacrjournals.org\/clincancerres\/article\/doi\/10.1158\/1078-0432.CCR-25-3384\/771998\/Epigenetic-Instability-Based-Metrics-in-Cell-Free\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">published<\/a> Jan. 27 in Clinical Cancer Research and <a href=\"https:\/\/aacrjournals.org\/cancerres\/article\/84\/6_Supplement\/3666\/737160\/Abstract-3666-Multi-cancer-early-detection-using\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">presented<\/a> at the 2024 American Association for Cancer Research meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The work marks a turning point in how scientists think about using DNA methylation as a cancer signal, according to lead author Hariharan Easwaran, an associate professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is the first study where we are trying to really implement measuring that variation, or stochasticity, into a diagnostic tool,\u201d Easwaran said in a news release. \u201cWe immediately found that measuring DNA methylation variation performs better than just measuring DNA methylation by itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DNA methylation is a chemical tag that cells place on DNA to help control which genes are turned on or off. Many current liquid biopsy tests look for specific, consistent changes in methylation at particular spots in the genome that are associated with cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those tests, however, are usually built by studying relatively narrow groups of people \u2014 similar in age, race or disease stage \u2014 and often do not perform as well when applied to broader, more diverse populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Johns Hopkins team took a different tack. Rather than asking whether a specific site is more or less methylated in cancer, they asked how unpredictable the methylation patterns are overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cancer cells are known to have highly disordered epigenomes. The researchers reasoned that this disorder, captured as variation from one DNA fragment to another, might be a more universal hallmark of cancer than any single methylation change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To test that idea, first author Sara-Jayne Thursby, a postdoctoral researcher in Easwaran\u2019s lab, analyzed publicly available DNA methylation data from 2,084 samples across multiple cancer types. She searched for genomic regions, called CpG islands, that showed the most variability in methylation in cancers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe identified specific genomic regions that tend to be the most variable in DNA methylation marks during cancer,\u201d Thursby said in the news release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From that analysis, the team built a panel of 269 CpG islands that captured much of the methylation variability seen across cancers. Those regions form the backbone of their new metric, called the Epigenetic Instability Index, or EII.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The researchers then trained a machine learning model on this panel to tell apart cancer signals from healthy ones, and tested it using cross-validation techniques to guard against overfitting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The results were striking. In lung adenocarcinoma, the EII distinguished stage 1A cancers with 81% sensitivity at 95% specificity. That means the test correctly flagged 81% of true cancers while keeping false alarms low. For early-stage breast cancer, the test reached about 68% sensitivity at the same high specificity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tool also picked up signals from colon, brain, pancreatic and prostate cancers, suggesting that epigenetic instability may be a common feature across many tumor types.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In healthy people, cell-free DNA \u2014 fragments of DNA that circulate in the bloodstream after cells die and break apart \u2014 tends to have relatively stable methylation patterns. Thursby explained that is exactly why measuring variability can be so revealing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn cell-free DNA in the blood, that variability shouldn\u2019t be high, but if it is, it is indicative of a developing cancerous phenotype,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team believes this instability may also be tied to how dangerous a lesion becomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe hypothesize that early-stage tumors and precancerous lesions that exhibit high degrees of methylation variation, or epigenetic instability, may be more resistant to intrinsic cancer-protective mechanisms and progress more rapidly,\u201d added co-lead author Thomas Pisanic, an associate research professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Catching those changes early could give doctors a chance to intervene before tumors grow, spread or become harder to treat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The group\u2019s working model is that methylation patterns begin to drift even at the very start of cancer development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur hypothesis is that during the earliest stages of cancer development, methylation starts shifting,\u201d Easwaran added. \u201cWe can try to pick those signals using these stochasticity metrics, even of early cancer stages, as long as the DNA is shed in the blood.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In practical terms, the researchers envision the Epigenetic Instability Index as a complement to existing screening tools, not a replacement. It could be paired with other liquid biopsy technologies, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hopkinsmedicine.org\/news\/newsroom\/news-releases\/2019\/05\/johns-hopkins-researchers-design-new-blood-test-that-uses-dna-packaging-patterns-to-detect-multiple-cancer-types\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">DELFI <\/a>and DNA mutation-based assays, developed at Johns Hopkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One potential use would be as a secondary triaging measure in situations where standard screening tests often produce false positives. For example, a man with an elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level might face an uncertain decision about whether to undergo an invasive biopsy. An additional blood test that measures epigenetic instability could help clarify whether a biopsy is truly warranted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beyond individual cases, a broadly applicable blood test that works across diverse populations could help expand access to early cancer detection. Many people skip or lack access to imaging-based screenings like mammograms or CT scans. A simple blood draw that can be repeated over time could fit more easily into routine care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, the researchers caution that their work is still in the early stages. The current study is a proof of concept, and the EII will need to be validated in larger, long-term clinical cohorts before it can be used in practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team is now working to refine the method, improve its performance and test it in more real-world settings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pisanic noted that as scientists learn to read these subtle shifts in the epigenome, they may gain a powerful new tool for prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBy leveraging these metrics, we may be able to better identify and intercept tissues in the early stages of carcinogenesis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If that promise holds up, a measure of chaos in our DNA\u2019s chemical marks could one day bring more order \u2014 and more options \u2014 to cancer screening and care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:12px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hopkinsmedicine.org\/news\/newsroom\/news-releases\/2026\/02\/detecting-early-stage-cancers-with-a-new-blood-test-measuring-epigenetic-instability\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Johns Hopkins Medicine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a blood test that looks for epigenetic instability in DNA, rather than fixed genetic changes, to flag early cancers. The approach could one day complement existing screening tools and help doctors decide who truly needs invasive follow-up tests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-no-separators","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-34011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","tag-johns-hopkins-university"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"The University Network","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/author\/funky_junkie\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a blood test that looks for epigenetic instability in DNA, rather than fixed genetic changes, to flag early cancers. The approach could one day complement existing screening tools and help doctors decide who truly needs invasive follow-up tests.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34011"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34041,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34011\/revisions\/34041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}