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Non-Invasive Blood Test May Provide “Crystal Ball” for Early Detection of Infections Leading to Increased Cure for Pediatric Leukemia
Researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the nation’s premier pediatric cancer research institution, have conducted a new study showing promising signs for utilization of a non-invasive blood test to provide for the early detection of infections in childhood leukemia patients days before symptoms appear which could lead to increased cure rates.
Using the Karius Test, a non-invasive blood test using artificial intelligence and DNA sequencing to detect over 1,400 bacteria, DNA viruses, fungi and parasites, St. Jude researchers are seeing early results in a new study published in the JAMA Oncology that could be the game-changing technique necessary for predicting infections in patients with weakened immune systems.
“Parents of children with cancer often wish they had a crystal ball to know what’s coming next and this new study is showing promising signs we may have found one for them,” said co-senior author Joshua Wolf, M.D, Ph.D., an associate faculty member of the St. Jude Department of Infectious Diseases. “Infections are the leading cause of death for children treated for leukemia in the United States. This works is going right to the heart of detecting new infections before symptoms appear and that is nothing short of a game-changer in how we treat and combat deadly infections in children with cancer.”
Patients treated with chemotherapy for cancers, such as leukemia, have a high risk of life-threatening infections. Some children with leukemia have a higher chance of dying from an infection than from the cancer itself. Currently, prophylactic antibiotics are used in certain high-risk patients to try to prevent infections. However, this approach is effective only half of the time, and exposure to antibiotics may cause gastrointestinal symptoms or contribute to antibiotic resistance.
The Karius Test was originally developed to primarily detect specific causative pathogens in complicated pneumonia, cardiovascular infections, and infections in immunocompromised patients. St. Jude’s study is the first time the test has been used to detect and identify infections in pediatric leukemia patients.
The study enrolled 47 patients, 12 of whom developed a total of 19 bloodstream infections. The microbial cell-free DNA test, performed by Karius Inc., predicted the bloodstream infection in 75% (12/16) of cases as far out as three days before patients showed symptoms. The researchers are conducting an expansion of this study to analyze the test’s ability to detect infection in more patients.
The study’s other authors are Veronica Gonzalez-Pena, Yuki Inaba, Kim Allison, Sivaraman Natarajan, Ousman Mahmud, William Kuenzinger, Sarah Youssef, Abigail Brenner, Gabriela Maron, John Choi, Jeffrey Rubnitz, Yilun Sun and Li Tang of St. Jude and David Hong, Asim Ahmed and Desiree Hollemon of Karius Inc. The research at St. Jude was funded in part by Karius Inc., the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Hyundai Foundation for Pediatric Cancer Research, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization of St. Jude.
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