mRNA profiling of blood platelets for cancer diagnostics

Cancer is still a disease which can not be overcome by everyone. Often this is
due to the late detection of the tumor. At a moment there are already
metastases the chances of curing this disease are extremely low. Much
improvement can be made by detecting cancer in a earlier stage. This requires a
new way of screening. Recent research has shown that tumors leave traces behind
in the bloodstream. If we can find these traces in blood from patients it is
possible to distinguish healthy people from cancer patients. Our research has
shown that platelets from cancer patients have a different genetic content
compared to healthy donors. Because of this different genetic material, in this
case RNA, we are able to distinguish multiple tumor types from healthy people.
With this method, we hope to discover cancer at an earlier stage so that more
patients can be cured of cancer.

To validate and improve our blood-based pan-cancer screening test to make it
applicable for clinical use

Cancer patient samples are already being collected. This study is focused on
obtaining enough healthy controls. Volunteers need to be willing to donate
blood once. Further storage and processing will all be done completely
anonymous. The RNA profiles from platelets will be used to further develop our
diagnostic tests.

Neglectable, one blood draw on a healthy population