The blood test was designed to determine which lung cancer patients may need additional treatment after tumor removal and which may not.
The test works by identifying DNA released into the bloodstream by tumor cells, known as circulating tumor DNA. If this is found in the blood before or after surgery, it means that the patient’s cancer is very likely to return in the future.
Although they were developed for patients with lung cancer, the scientists say their findings could be applied to other cancers, including skin, colon, kidney, breast and bladder cancers.
Not only will this help increase the risk of long-term survival in those at risk for tumor recurrence, but it will also mean that patients who can be shown to be at low risk of recurrence will not be subjected to unnecessary additional treatment. Treatment such as chemotherapy.
The researchers suggest it could benefit thousands of patients a year in the UK.
“The main purpose of these blood tests is to help doctors decide which lung cancer patients need treatment and which do not after surgical removal of the tumor,” said Chris Abbosh of University College London and AstraZeneca. I.
“Ongoing monitoring for recurrent lung cancer can be incredibly burdensome for patients, as about four out of ten patients with stage II-III lung cancer unfortunately relapse.
“It often causes a lot of anxiety when you go to the hospital for a scan and wait for the results. Concomitant blood tests, which could be done at a local pharmacy, could reduce the anxiety patients experience in these conditions and improve quality of life.
Ian Foulkes, Executive Director of Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, added: “A blood test that reads the DNA of a circulating tumor could allow doctors to track a person’s cancer in real time and thus guide treatment for that patient to personalize his.
“Currently, the best way to monitor a patient’s tumor is to obtain tissue through a biopsy or during surgery. Both are invasive and labor intensive options that give us limited insight into how this tumor is behaving at any given time.
“The ctDNA analysis would give us a more complete picture of how the tumor changes over the course of a patient’s illness with the help of minimally invasive blood tests. This would allow doctors to be more proactive in treating people and take quick action to change a treatment plan that is not working,” he said.
Blood tests are available for clinical trials and are used to test drugs for lung cancer, but they are not available on the NHS.
Scientists involved in the project said using blood tests on a large scale may not be practical because they are personalized – they determine the sequence of tumor genes, which means that they are difficult and time-consuming to conduct.
However, research on this blood test has shown that this approach works, and scientists in other countries are developing blood tests for “tumor recurrence” on similar principles that can be made faster and easier, although tests on their effectiveness need to be done.
Francis Crick Institute and UCL research has been published in seven papers in peer-reviewed journals. Nature AND naturopathy.
Lead researcher Professor Charles Swanton said the tumor DNA test “recognizes that cancer is not static, and how we treat patients should not be static either.”
Professor Swanton of the Francis Crick Institute in London, UCLA, and chief medical officer of the Cancer Research Center in the UK, said: “If we look at the tumor as a whole, we can see how these cell populations interact and even compete between yourself. to help others” to provide valuable information about the likelihood and timing of tumor recurrence.
“We can also see how a tumor can develop, spread and respond to treatment over time, giving hope to millions of patients in the future.”
Tumors are made up of different “populations” of cancer cells, each carrying different genetic mutations that are constantly changing. The more diverse these mutations, the more likely it is that tumors can develop, become resistant to treatment, and recur within a year after treatment.
The researchers found that certain patterns of genetic mutations in cell populations cause the patient’s cancer to return more quickly – within a year after surgery.
Source: I News
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