A groundbreaking advance in cancer detection is here. Researchers at Mass General Brigham have developed HPV-DeepSeek, a blood test that can detect head and neck cancers linked to the human papillomavirus (HPV) as much as 10 years before symptoms appear.
HPV causes around 70% of head & neck cancers in the U.S., but until now, there was no screening tool for them. Most cases are only caught once symptoms surface and tumors have grown large.
HPV-DeepSeek uses whole-genome sequencing and machine learning to look for tiny bits of HPV DNA shed by tumors (called circulating tumor DNA, or ctDNA). In tests using archived blood samples, it correctly identified 27 out of 28 people who later developed the cancer — some samples were taken nearly 10 years before diagnosis. All control samples (people who didn’t develop cancer) tested negative.
The test showed remarkably high accuracy, with near 99% specificity and sensitivity in diagnosing patients at their first clinical visit.
Researchers are now moving into larger, blinded validation studies using national biobanks like PLCO to confirm performance across wider populations.
If this holds up, we may be on the verge of a new era: catching some cancers not when they hurt you, but before they ever cause symptoms. That’s what’s right with the world.