Immunodiagnostic Innovation from Lisbon: Simple blood test accurately identifies early-stage cancer with 0% false positives.

A research team at the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM), in collaboration with Hospital de Santa Maria and the University of Cambridge, led by Professor Gonçalo Bernardes and Dr Emma Yates, has developed an innovative immunodiagnostic platform capable of detecting cancer at early stages and predicting the efficacy of cancer treatments using a simple blood test.

Published in Nature Communications, the study shows that this technology measures subtle changes in the immune response in plasma by identifying specific amino acid residues in proteins, enabling early and accurate tumor detection.

Impressive Results:

• Detected 78% of cancer cases with 0% false positives in a sample of 170 participants.
• Demonstrated high accuracy with an area under the ROC curve (AUROC) of 0.95.
• Overcame limitations of conventional liquid biopsies based on tumor DNA, especially in detecting early-stage tumors.
• Correctly identified 98% of advanced breast cancer patients who responded to CDK4/6 inhibitor therapies.

How does it work?
The platform measures the concentration of five specific amino acid residues (lysine, tryptophan, tyrosine, and two forms of cysteine) in plasma proteins, reflecting immune surveillance changes typical of tumor development. Using artificial intelligence algorithms, the researchers identified patterns associated with cancer presence, location, and likelihood of treatment response.

This technology, developed by the GIMM team, represents a novel approach in oncology diagnostics.

Expected Impact:
“We have developed a revolutionary technology that, for the first time to our knowledge, detects cancer and other diseases by analyzing changes at the amino acid level – the components that make up all proteins. Unlike traditional approaches that look at thousands of protein changes, our method focuses on shifts in these core building blocks, providing a clearer and more sensitive reflection of the host’s immune response. This unique approach allows for earlier and more accurate detection of diseases such as cancer,” says Gonçalo Bernardes, former principal investigator at IMM and Professor at the University of Cambridge.

“This platform opens a new door for early cancer diagnosis and more personalized medicine. It is simple, scalable, and can complement existing strategies, such as those based on genetics or circulating tumor DNA,” says Cong Tang, senior postdoctoral researcher at GIMM and first author of the study.

Future Applications:

• Early detection of various cancer types, including breast, prostate, colon, and pancreas.
• Accessible population screenings with rapid blood tests.
• Guidance for personalized therapy decisions, especially for drugs targeting immune response.

Tang, C., Corredeira, P., Casimiro, S., Shi, Q., Han, Q., Sukdao, W., … & Bernardes, G. J. (2025). Immunodiagnostic plasma amino acid residue biomarkers detect cancer early and predict treatment response. Nature Communications, 16(1), 6474.