一種能更有效診斷與判斷癌癥預(yù)后的技術(shù)業(yè)已研制成功。該方法能夠在癌癥形成與進(jìn)展過程中，從患者的血清與尿液中檢測出異常DNA甲基化的模式。

該技術(shù)被叫做MethylPlex，方法簡單但是十分敏感，克服了時(shí)間與成本的障礙，正是這些障礙使得使用DNA甲基化篩查癌癥直到現(xiàn)在都不切實(shí)際。當(dāng)描繪基因表達(dá)情況的時(shí)候，使用MethylPlex基因芯片描繪基因組甲基化的方法簡單而且價(jià)廉。檢測早期前列腺與食管癌的關(guān)鍵指標(biāo)，是根據(jù)幾百例患者甲基化模式來診斷的。MethylPlex是Rubicon基因公司(Ann Arbor, MI, USA)的產(chǎn)品。

醫(yī)院以及實(shí)驗(yàn)室都將使用價(jià)廉、非創(chuàng)傷性的MethylPlex診斷方法。最初的檢測將使用前列腺特異性抗原或者其他前列腺癌指標(biāo)水平較高患者的血清或者尿液，來鑒別出那些應(yīng)當(dāng)使用激進(jìn)治療方案的患者，防止患者進(jìn)行定期活檢或者不必要手術(shù)。根據(jù)Rubicon公司的說法，MethylPlex技術(shù)還具有診斷其他類型癌癥的能力。該公司已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)了大約1000個(gè)與癌癥相關(guān)的新甲基化位點(diǎn)，是過去10年采用其他技術(shù)發(fā)現(xiàn)數(shù)量的2倍。

Rubicon基因公司創(chuàng)始人兼CSO Vladimir Makarov博士說:“MethylPlex是破譯這種診斷潛能的關(guān)鍵，因?yàn)樗軌蛟?天的時(shí)間內(nèi)產(chǎn)生10,000條基因的高清晰甲基化圖譜，而每條基因的檢測成本低于0.10美元，從而將發(fā)現(xiàn)與證實(shí)新指標(biāo)的成本降低了大約100倍” 。
 
New Cancer-Detection Technology
 
A more effective technology for the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer has been developed that detects the patterns of abnormal DNA methylation arising in the serum and urine of patients during tumor formation and progression.

Called MethylPlex, the method is simple but is the most sensitive and overcomes barriers of time and cost that have made cancer screening based on DNA methylation impractical until now. MethylPlex microarray profiling of genome methylation is as simple and inexpensive as the profiling of gene expression. Key markers for detecting two initial types of cancer, prostate and esophageal, will be determined by analyzing the methylation patterns from hundreds of patients. MethylPlex is the product of Rubicon Genomics (Ann Arbor, MI, USA).

Hospitals and reference laboratories will use inexpensive, noninvasive MethylPlex diagnostic tests. The first tests will use serum or urine from patients with high prostate-
specific antigen (PSA) or other indications of prostate cancer to identify those cases that should be treated aggressively, preventing patients from having to undergo periodic biopsies or unnecessary surgeries. MethylPlex has equal potential for diagnosing other types of cancer, according to Rubicon. The company has discovered almost 1,000 new methylation sites associated with cancer, more than double the number discovered by other technologies in the past 10 years.

“MethylPlex is the key to unlocking this diagnostic potential because it produces high resolution maps of methylation for more than 10,000 genes in one day for less than U.S.$0.10 per gene,” noted Dr. Vladimir Makarov, founder and CSO of Rubicon Genomics. “This reduces the time and cost to discover and validate new markers by nearly 100-fold.”