Liquid biopsy is a new technique that seeks to advance the diagnosis of cancer by favoring early detection, thus seeking to improve patient prognoses with more personalized and efficient treatments.
According to a recent debate organized by CaixaResearch, liquid biopsy is capable of detecting biological traces of the tumor by extracting blood, urine or other body fluids, thus being a less invasive and painful treatment than traditional biopsy, avoiding discomfort for the patient and saving time in terms of analysis of results since the analyzes can be ready in a few days, in addition to the possibility of repeating it as many times as necessary, which means that more constant, efficient and safe monitoring of the disease can be done.
Olga Vera, Lorena Diéguez and Cristina Saura are the 3 researchers who participated in the debate and are also the ones who are leading 3 projects supported by the CaixaImpulse Innovation program of the “La Caixa” Foundation of Spain to advance the development of this new technique and facilitate its transfer to regular clinical practice.
When it comes to cancer, time plays a fundamental role and the more it is detected, the better the prognoses for patients, so this technique would represent a great change in this sense, as well as in treatments.