The blood test so sensitive that it can spot a single cancer cell lurking among a billion healthy ones is moving one step closer to being available at your doctor's office.
Posted on 01/06/2011 8:39:31 AM PST by SeekAndFind
A new blood test so sensitive that it can spot a single cancer cell lurking among a billion healthy ones is one step closer to market, researchers will announce Monday.
The test for stray cancer cells could turn out to be an easy, painless and more efficient alternative to mammograms, colonoscopies and biopsies.
"There's a lot of excitement," said Dr. Mark Kris, lung cancer chief at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, one of four big cancer centers launching studies on the experimental test this year.
Cancer patients usually get a drug or radiation treatment and are then given a CT scan two months later to look for tumor shrinkage.
Most don't live long enough to try more than one or two treatments. But a blood test could gauge success in just a day, enabling doctors to pursue a successful treatment or quickly move on to something else.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Let’s hope that it works and can save lives without costing a small fortune.
MORE HERE :
FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/05/news/la-heb-cancer-blood-test-20110105
Blood test in development appears to be able to detect a single cancer cell
EXCERPT:
A liquid biopsy? That’s what developers are calling a new blood test for cancer that’s been getting a lot of buzz lately. The test appears to be hypersensitive to even a single cell of cancer in the body.
Wonderful as it is, it’s a diagnostic tool, not a cure.
Sure, once the government gets the fact that you will be a long term burden on society, off you go to the death panel reservation list.
sadly, this will probably disappear off the radar in a few months and we will never hear of it again.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but just a couple of years ago, there was great excitement about this-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/jan/11/cancer.infectiousdiseases
and this-
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2008/04/kanzius_therapy
and then we heard nothing more.
True. If it's cheap enough, though, it could be used at regular intervals and catch cancers in their very early stages. That would greatly enhance overall survivability.
Did they work?
that’s just it!
I have no idea if either worked.
There has been nothing more.
And probably make the cures a lot cheaper. Chemo is expensive.
Detect and cure not the same hope it works however Ive heard a story like this once a year for the last forty years.
I would think it’s a fair guess to say that the reason we haven’t heard anymore, is because research found they didn’t work as thought. No sense in advertising failures, just go on to the next test.
Some cancers, such as those of the pancreas, aren’t usually detected in time, because symptoms don’t show until it’s too late. This procedure may go a long way toward getting treatment early enough to be effective.
There is too much money in cancer cures and research.
This will never be implemented fully.
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