SCANNING the blood in search of diseased cells and analyzing the genetic sequences of the cells present in the urine: these are some of the strategies underlying the early diagnosis of tumors or to find the diseased cells that have survived the therapy, presented in five articles in the same issue of the journal Plos Medicine.
The research coordinated by Jeffrey Szymanski, of the Washington University School of Medicine, describes the genome-wide sequencing technique of cell-free plasma used between benign and malignant tumors caused by type 1 neurofibromatosis and to help control the efficacy of therapies. Another technique for early diagnosis is the one proposed by Brian Nicholson, of the British University of Oxford, which uses routine clinical tests to estimate the risk of cancer in individuals with unexpected weight loss.
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The other three studies, on the other hand, concern the hunt for cancer cells that have resisted the therapies and that could restart the disease. The study conducted by Yaqi Wang, from China’s Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, combines magnetic resonance imaging and measurements of circulating tumor DNA to calculate the risk of recurrence in patients with advanced-stage colorectal cancer.
The search for cancer cells in the blood after therapy is also at the center of research conducted in Australia by Jeanne Tie, of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, in order to predict possible relapses in patients with colorectal cancer extended to the liver. .
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Finally, the research conducted by Pradeep Chauhan, of the Washington University School of Medicine, presents a new generation technique for the sequencing of tumor DNA identified in the urine and tested in patients with bladder tumors. Also in this case the goal is to hunt for the diseased cells escaped from anticancer therapies to avoid relapses and develop personalized treatments.
Tumors: important mechanism underlying resistance to chemotherapy discovered
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