Dr Kristi Milley spoke to Dr Natalia Calanzani from Cambridge University in the UK. Natalia is a Research Associate and a member of the CanTest Collaborative. 

Natalia recently published ‘Identifying novel biomarkers ready for evaluation in low-prevalence populations for the early detection of upper gastrointestinal cancers: a systematic review’ in Advances in Therapy.

Natalia highlights that detecting upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancers in primary care is a challenge because cancer symptoms are common, often non-specific, and most patients who present with these symptoms will not have cancer. 

She wants listeners to understand that while there is a lot of evidence on biomarkers being evaluated for early detection, research is still at a really early stage.  Natalia goes on to explain that some biomarkers identified in this review will be helpful for primary care but we need more evidence so we can recommend further evaluations. However this review is still really important because it shows the landscape of work being done.

Find full show notes here:http://pc4tg.com.au/research-round-up-march-2021-with-dr-natalia-calanzani/