Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is one of the most aggressive of all blood cancers. How it is classified helps determine how each patient is treated. For decades, that classification has rested on the gene mutations identified in leukemic cells, and these have driven both clinical decisions and the development of targeted drugs. But gene mutations are only part of the story. The epigenome, the layer of regulation that determines which genes a cell uses, has long been thought to play an equally important role in AML, but the full picture has remained unclear.

CHANGWON, South Korea — Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS), led by President Chul-jin Choi, announced that a research team led by Minyoung Lee and Sunggyu Park of the Bio & Health Materials Research Division has developed a plasmonic-based liquid biopsy platform capable of ultrasensitive detection of KRAS mutations in the blood and urine of patients with early-stage colorectal cancer. By analyzing matched tumor tissue, plasma, and urine samples from patients with Stage 0 and Stage I colorectal cancer, the researchers demonstrated over 90% concordance in KRAS mutation status across the three specimen types, supporting the platform's potential as a non-invasive precision cancer diagnostic technology.