Healthy Habits: Karius Test

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.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and cures childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. St. Jude is ranked the No. 1 pediatric cancer hospital by U.S. News & World Report. Treatments developed at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to 80 percent since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude freely shares the breakthroughs it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing and food — because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. To learn more, visit stjude.org or follow St. Jude on social media at @stjuderesearch.