What Your Blood Tells You About Cancer

Blood tests can tell us a lot about what’s going on in our bodies—from whether we’re eating too much sugar to whether we’re harboring any infectious diseases. Scientists lately have been working on ways to use similar diagnostic tools for cancer, which have the potential to dramatically increase the amount of information doctors use to figure out the best treatments for their patients. Called liquid biopsies, these tests are designed to pick up genetic material shed by cancer tumors into the blood, which lets doctors avoid the invasive procedures needed to extract samples directly from tumors. That advantage over tissue-based biopsies is especially important in cases where tumors are deeply embedded in internal organs, and hard to reach. For now, the blood-based tests are not used to screen for cancers in healthy people but to guide treatments in those who are already diagnosed. A biopsy, whether from the tissues or the blood, can provide genetic clues about the mutations that are driving the tumors, and can direct doctors to the best drugs for treating them. That’s why these tests have developed in tandem with drugs designed to specifically block the effects of certain mutations that help cancers grow, and have made a huge difference in the world of cancer treatment. Matching these so-called targeted therapies to the right tumor mutations can improve survival rates for patients with lung and breast cancers, among others. Earlier this summer the...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news