THE ESSENTIAL
- Circulating tumor DNA detected by a simple blood test might soon be an alternative to biopsies.
- There are 50,000 prostate cancers each year in France, including at least 3,000 at the metastatic stage.
It is called circulating tumor DNA: contained in cancer cells, it can be detected in small quantities in the bloodstream and provide important details.
And it is precisely he who interests Canadian scientists who have developed a blood test to analyze it and derive a complete sequencing.
The results of their work have been published in the journal Nature.
Manage your cancer
“With just a few drops of blood, we can uncover critical information regarding a person’s overall disease and how best to manage their cancer.”explains Dr. Alexander Wyatt, co-author of the study and researcher at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI) and BC Cancer.
Indeed, in this DNA is written the way in which the cancer spread in the patient’s body and by comparing it with the history of treatments, it is possible to deduce a posteriori which were effective or not and shaping the next generation of cancer therapies.
“This test has the potential to help clinicians choose better-suited treatment options and more effectively detect treatment resistance, allowing clinicians to adjust clinical care as needed.” according to the authors.
Metastatic cancer
To carry out their work, the team took blood samples from patients with metastatic prostate cancer.
Metastatic prostate cancer means that the tumor has spread beyond the tissues surrounding the prostate to reach distant lymph nodes or other parts of the body away from the prostate such as the lungs, liver or bones.
“Metastatic cancers are complex and our understanding of them is limited, explains Dr. Wyatt. While traditional biopsies only provide a small snapshot of the disease, this new test is able to paint a more complete picture of metastases throughout the body, all from a simple and easy-to-perform blood test.”
This test therefore raises hope for finding therapeutic solutions more suited to metastatic cancers.
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