Breakthrough in Cancer detection

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

Watch Video Below

 

 

A blood test that detects a single cancer cell among billions of healthy ones is to be trialled in hospitals.

 

 

Described by its inventors as a "liquid biopsy", the test could have a huge impact on cancer care. Doctors at four big cancer centres in the US initially want to use it to help them predict the best way to treat a patient's cancer, and to rapidly discover whether that treatment is working.

 

Massachusetts General Hospital cancer centre chief Dr Daniel Haber, one of the test's inventors, said: "If you could find out quickly, 'this drug is working, stay on it,' or 'this drug is not working, try something else,' that would be huge."

Scientists believe stray cancerous cells in the blood can indicate a tumour has spread to other parts of the body, or is likely to.

 

The test could reduce the need for painful tissue sampling and speed up treatment for patients, who at the moment often have to wait vital months for a CT scan to see if their tumour is shrinking. One of the hospitals chosen to start trials this year is New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Centre. Its head of lung cancer treatment Dr Mark Kris said: "There's a lot of potential here, and that's why there's a lot of excitement." The test works by using a microchip covered in 78,000 tiny posts, like bristles on a toothbrush.

 

Each post is coated in antibodies that stick to cancer cells when blood is forced over the chip. A stain makes them glow so researchers can count and capture them.

Ultimately doctors think the test may offer another way to screen for cancer, alongside techniques like mammograms and colonoscopies.

Drugs company Johnson and Johnson has announced that it has joined forces with the test's inventors to try to improve the microchip and develop it for mass production.

 

The most similar test available on the market today costs over £100.

Although the development of the new test is expected to take years, if it is approved for use it could become available for use by British doctors in the NHS.

 

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Blood-Test-That-Could-Detect-Single-Cancer-Cell-Among-Billions-Of-Healthy-Ones-To-Be-Trialled/Article/201101115879000?lpos=World_News_Second_Home_Page_Article_Teaser_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15879000_Blood_Test_That_Could_Detect_Single_Cancer_Cell_Among_Billions_Of_Healthy_Ones_To_Be_Trialled

[Khayr]

Could this be the cure against Cancer?