Innovative AI-Driven Liquid Biopsy Enhances Early Detection of Brain Cancer

A groundbreaking liquid biopsy technique developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center offers promising potential for early diagnosis of brain cancer. This approach involves analyzing blood samples for circulating DNA fragments originating from tumor cells and immune system activity, enabling detection of brain tumors at an earlier stage than traditional methods. The method employs machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), to recognize specific DNA patterns associated with brain cancer, including genome-wide fragmentation and immune cell profile alterations.

The study, published in Cancer Discovery, demonstrated that this AI-based liquid biopsy could identify brain cancer approximately 75% of the time in a cohort of 505 patients from the United States and South Korea. These results are significant improvements over previous blood-based detection methods, which had a detection rate of less than 10%. The researchers also validated their findings in an additional group of about 95 patients from Poland.

One of the key advantages of this technique is its ability to detect immune changes linked to brain tumors. Patients with brain cancer tend to exhibit systemic immune suppression and possess a distinct immune cell profile detectable in blood samples. These immune signatures do not necessarily pass through the blood-brain barrier, thus providing an additional means of identification.

The research underscores the potential of this advanced liquid biopsy to transform brain cancer diagnosis, allowing for earlier intervention and improved patient outcomes. By simulating how this technology could be integrated into emergency and primary care settings, the team estimates that it could identify nearly 1,700 additional brain cancer cases annually among patients presenting with headaches.

Future steps include designing prospective clinical trials to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach in larger, high-risk populations. This innovative diagnostic tool leverages pattern recognition in DNA fragments and immune response to overcome longstanding obstacles posed by the blood-brain barrier, marking a significant advancement in neuro-oncology research.

Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-ai-based-liquid-biopsy-brain.html