Liquid Biopsy – promising advances in early cancer detection

Early detection is the holy grail of cancer research and any effort to enhance detection of cancer at an early stage is more than welcome. Certain fragments of DNA shed by tumors into the bloodstream can potentially be used to non-invasively screen for early-stage cancers, monitor responses to treatment and help explain why some cancers are resistant to therapies. For most tumors, a tissue biopsy is quite challenging in that it is costly, painful, or potentially risky for the patient. All these are good reasons to learn about cancer through blood and to get excited about the possibility of carrying out liquid biopsies. Liquid biopsy uses body fluids such as blood, urine, saliva, stool, and sputum from patients suspected to have early stage cancer as well as those at high risk of developing cancer. 

To date, liquid biopsies have generated a lot of excitement since they can provide a non-invasive, ongoing picture of a patient’s cancer, offering valuable insight into how best to fight it. In addition to offering clues about stage and spread, liquid biopsies can be used to monitor the effects of cancer treatment, give an early warning about possible recurrence and offer clues to the reasons for treatment resistance.  In the future, instead of extensive imaging and invasive tissue biopsies, liquid biopsies could be used to guide cancer treatment decisions and perhaps even screen for tumors that are not yet visible on imaging.

This post contains excerpts from Annals of Traditional Medicine.