The problem of early diagnosis of life-threatening diseases is one of the most important areas of modern medicine. And recently, experts from Johns Hopkins University conducted the first tests universal test for cancer that can diagnose tumors ten years before the first symptoms. The method is called “liquid biopsy”, and the methodology of analysis is virtually indistinguishable from normal blood sampling.
The opening should Professor Bert Vogelstein and his research team. Scientists believe that the new method of diagnosis can reduce cancer mortality by 45%. “Liquid biopsy” scans the blood samples for the presence of cancerous DNA. A series of experiments showed that it is possible easily to detect at least one of the variants of mutation of the DNA that precedes the development of cancer. The genetic code in DNA is called ctDNA. Its presence suggests what the bodies of the growing tumor and how far the cancer has spread.
Researchers from the cancer center of Memorial Sloan Kettering in new York have already conducted a series of experiments involving more than 150 patients to detect lung cancer, breast or prostate. If the result was positive, patients underwent further examination to determine the nature of the pathology. Detection of tumors at an early stage suggests that in this case, you can do minimal surgery to get rid of the person from cancer. In addition, as the authors of the survey, if the cancer would not be identified now, before the first symptoms the patients would have passed about 10 years.
As it became known, earlier in a similar research, the scientists from Australia and the United States analyzed the efficiency test for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. The study involved 119 patients already diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and it was revealed that the test can accurately identify the disease in 55.5% of cases. The test can be available within the next two years, and the ultimate goal is to hold it during the screening tests, along with measurement of blood pressure and General blood test.
New test helps detect cancer 10 years before his appearance
Vladimir Kuznetsov