Posted on 01/12/2022 1:06:40 PM PST by Red Badger
Oxford scientists have tested a new cancer blood test that can accurately identify the presence of tumors and whether or not they've
Cancer treatments have better outcomes if the disease is caught early, but unfortunately symptoms often don’t present until later. A new Oxford study demonstrates an experimental blood test that shows promise in detecting a variety of cancers in patients, and even whether or not they’ve spread.
Being able to go into a doctor’s office for a routine blood test to check for cancer would save countless lives, so of course the idea has attracted much scientific study. Different tests have searched for different biomarkers associated with cancer, such as elevated levels of certain proteins, DNA mutations, RNA profiles of blood platelets, damage to white blood cells, or DNA methylation patterns.
The new Oxford test takes a different tack, instead hunting for blood metabolites, small molecules that are produced as a result of metabolic processes. These can be detected using a technique called nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolomics, which examines blood samples using magnetic fields and radio waves.
Healthy people, people with cancer and people with metastatic cancer will all have different profiles of blood metabolites, and the team’s algorithms can determine which profile a patient’s sample fits. Best of all, the test isn’t specific to any one type of cancer.
“Cancer cells have unique metabolomic fingerprints due to their different metabolic processes,” says Dr. James Larkin, an author of the study. “We are only now starting to understand how metabolites produced by tumors can be used as biomarkers to accurately detect cancer. We have already demonstrated that this technology can successfully identify if patients with multiple sclerosis are progressing to the later stages of disease, even before trained clinicians could tell.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
Theranos 2.0?
bttt
If you wait till symptoms show, it's GAME OVER. That's why people must screen, screen, screen (!)... especially if they belong to elevated risk groups. Rush would have lived if he had screened two or three years ago.
Not a bad idea. It has to be correlated with disease cuz everyone has a cancer cell or two hanging around before a potent immune system wipes them out. be best to find out where those markers came from to see if cancer has a “home” in the body.
“If you wait till symptoms show, it’s GAME OVER”
I mean not necessarily always but in many cases depending on symptoms. Cancer is a stealth disease and you can win by being proactive.. by getting ahead of it.
“Rush would have lived if he had screened two or three years ago.”
Citation? Link? Are you an oncologist?
Unfortunately, metastasis means it’s too late.
Stage 1 lung cancer is highly curable.
Cancers typically begin as a small mass of ‘pre cancerous lesions’. These cells aren’t cancerous but their DNA is majorly messed up and over time will quite possibly become cancerous. It doesn’t happen overnight. The process (called “oncogenesis”) can take many years. During a screening they will show up in a low powered x-ray as a “suspicious spot”. Doc will order a biopsy where a small sample is collected from the spot and sent to a pathologist for examination. If it turns out precancerous, or even early stage (stage 1) it’s surgically removed - and that would be the end of the story — with periodic follow ups with the doctor. If Rush had done that several years before he started coughing up blood in Jan 2020, especially knowing that he belonged in a high risk group, he would still be sitting behind the Golden EIB mic today.
I am sorry to hear that. Not all cancers grow at the same rate- depends on the specific mutations. Some are aggressive and will kill within weeks or months. Others can take a lot longer. Steve Jobs is another person who could have lived - he had a very treatable form of cancer, but he chose (initially) not to listen to his doctor.
Probably works. That would be totally ironic!............
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