Now cancer can be quickly detected

in #science7 years ago

For many years, scientists have been trying to find the fruitful treatment of cancer, but so far they couldn’t overcome it. Many people die from cancer each year, but still there is no perfect treatment that can heal cancer completely. Some people do not have enough money to pay for medicine, doctor’s fees and medical test as these are so expensive. This is natural phenomenon for poor man. But those who have a lot of money, they also die from cancer, because there is no perfect treatment or medicine that can remove cancerous cells from the body. Cancer is highly unpredictable and uncertain disease. However, we hope that one day human will have victory over it and no one will die from cancer. 


Image credit Single-Colour Digital PCR test


Recently, scientists at Stanford University have discovered a special type of blood test in one of their experiments, through which cancer can be easily and quickly detected. It is known as Molecular Blood Test or single colour digital PCR. This test can be done in affordable budget. All people can easily undergo this test, whether poor or rich. With this blood test, doctors can quickly detect the growth and the spread of the cancerous cells. The patients will have to give small amounts of blood for this test. This blood test will be able to reveal the genetic changes in the DNA released by cancer cells. This news can be found in the 'The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics'.

Hanlee P Ji, an associate professor at Stanford University, said

"For monitoring patient tumours, only a handful of blood tests are available which are limited to only several types of cancers."

"Nearly all cancer patients require monitoring by whole body imaging, which can be costly, complex, and time- consuming.

"In contrast, molecular tests like the one we have developed will enable patients to be monitored at every visit, and thus have the potential for quickly tracking cancer growth and spread,"

This test can monitor more patients at a time and help doctors to quickly find the growth and the spread of cancer cells. The cost of this blood test is very low and it has enough potential to detect the cancer cells speedily in compare to next-generation DNA sequencing.

Scientists conducted a test in which six patients with cancer participated. They collected blood samples from them. Five of them were suffering from colorectal cancer, while one was diagnosed with bile duct cancer.  


Image credit Bile duct cancer


After the invention of this blood test, the researchers could be able to discover DNA released by cancerous tumour from three patients. Three different genetic changes can be detected in one of them. 

Cancer DNA cannot be detected in rest of the three patients as the treatment was going on when their blood samples were collected.

There are several methods that can analyze DNA released by cancerous tumour, but the single-colour digital PCR test provides you many benefits. 

Christina Wood Bouwens, lead scientist of this research, said at Stanford University

"This test is simple enough to set up and analyse without extensive training, and therefore, it can be implemented by anyone, making it highly accessible to any laboratory."

"It has been truly motivating to work with a technology that will help transform the way that we monitor and treat individuals with cancer. I am excited to share our findings with the cancer research community."

You can find complete details about single-colour digital PCR test here.

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