Liquid biopsy technology is offered by Eone Diagnomics Genome Center for predicting cancerous risks in people with the highest precision. Gettyimagesbank

Predictive diagnosis touted as future direction for 'cancer moonshot'

By Ko Dong-hwan

Early detection has been touted as the easiest way to treat cancer. What if there were technologies that could help predict the likelihood of cancer?

Experts gathered at the National Assembly in Seoul, Monday, for a forum aiming to look into a game-changing predictive diagnostic technique against cancer and how it can be applied in today's medical environment.

Titled "Korea Cancer Moonshot," the forum hosted by Rep. Lee Yong-bin from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, a former family physician and a member of the National Assembly's Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs, and Startups Committee, looked into what the liquid biopsy technique developed by genome sequencing research firm Eone Diagnomics Genome Center (EDGC) does, how effective it is in preventing cancer, as well as caveats in making the technique a more common practice in the country's tightly regulated medical environment.

EDGC, headquartered on Incheon's Songdo, has been implementing results of clients' genetic sequencing analysis in a non-intrusive fashion to general medical applications, including family tree discovery and disease prevention, since 2013.

Rep. Lee, in his speech to open the forum at the National Assembly lawmakers' office building, said that for the technique to become more widely used, fundamental infrastructure to enable it in the prediction of diseases at the earliest stages should be compatible with the existing policies and theories that are focused on field operations.

What the forum has shed new light on was OncoCatch ― derived from the word oncology ― the name of EDGC's liquid biopsy technique. The diagnostic technique, using only a single-drop blood sample, can predict which cancers a person is at risk of developing. One of its exclusive advantages over other liquid biopsy techniques is that it can predictively diagnose multiple cancers at once.

"OncoCatch's diagnosis of bowel cancer, lung cancer and breast cancer showed higher precision than that of Grail," EDGC's Chief Technology Officer Lee Sung-hoon said during the forum, referring to a California-based firm considered a leading player in liquid biopsy in the U.S. "We will expand the technique's accuracy to the 10 most common cancers and start researching in the U.S. and Europe. We are also taking steps to get an approval from Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to commercialize the technique in the country."

Participants from Monday's forum held at the National Assembly discussed prospects and caveats behind implementing liquid biopsy technology as a predictive diagnostic technique against cancer. Fifth from left is EDGC's Chief Technology Officer Lee Sung-hoon. Ninth from left is Harvard Medical School associate professor Towia Libermann who delivered a keynote speech during the forum. Seventh from left is EDGC's co-founder Lee Min-seob. Courtesy of EDGC

Liquid biopsy is non-intrusive as it predictively diagnoses cancerous risks using a sample of blood, saliva or urine. It is more convenient than traditional cancer tests that relied on sampling through an intrusive apparatus. Because cancers are 90 percent treatable if detected early ― in either the first or second stage ― an effective predictive diagnosis is considered as a game-changer.

Cancer prediction became a national focus in the U.S. earlier this year. The White House in February released a statement delivering President Joe Biden's initiative to "reignite the Cancer Moonshot with renewed White House leadership of this effort." Their goals were to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50 percent over the next 25 years, and "end cancer as we know it today."

For the technique to become more widely used in Korea, the expensive examination costs must be lowered and the central government has to mitigate related regulations, the forum suggested.

"What had enabled the fast and precise COVID-19 infection tests (at early COVID-19 testing centers set up nationwide) in Korea was the government's mitigation of the existing regulations," said Kim Jong-won, a professor working for Samsung Medical Center in Seoul's Gangnam District. "How much and how fast the government will unlock the latches will determine the future of the technique's application in practice."

Keynote speeches were given at the event by Towia Libermann, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, as well as Lee Min-seob, co-CEO of EDGC and co-founder of Diagnomics in San Diego. The United Arab Emirates' sovereign wealth fund International Holding Company's Chief Scientific Officer Park Min Sung and other medical experts from Korea Society of Health Screening and Promotion also joined the forum.