Researchers have systematically mapped approximately 260,000 cancer-specific small RNAs, called oncRNAs, across 32 cancer types, revealing distinctive molecular "barcodes" that can identify cancer type with over 90% accuracy and predict patient outcomes through simple blood tests. In a study published January 23 in Cell Reports Medicine, Arc Institute Core Investigator Hani Goodarzi and colleagues found that each cancer produces unique patterns of these orphan non-coding RNAs, with about 30% actively secreted into the bloodstream. In 192 breast cancer patients from the I-SPY 2 trial, those with high residual oncRNA levels after chemotherapy had nearly 4-fold worse overall survival. This finding required only 1 milliliter of serum and remained significant even when controlling for standard clinical measures. Because cancer cells actively secrete these RNAs rather than passively shedding DNA, oncRNA-based liquid biopsies could enable earlier detection of recurrence and real-time treatment monitoring, addressing a key challenge in cancers that don't shed much DNA into the bloodstream.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Project Task Force recently published a report of their refined approach in the journal, Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.