2019-11-11 09:00:00
The Congress of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ALMOST) held in 2019 has revealed interesting advances in the fight against cancer. Two new methods of detection and diagnosis of cancer have been presented, based on blood extraction and sequencing of the ADN that is in it.
One group of researchers has studied patients with the most common type of lung cancer (called by oncologists NSCLC). This type of cancer becomes more or less malignant depending on the presence of mutations in a gene called ALK, which produces an enzyme involved in cell growth. If these mutations are present, the tumor is more malignant than if they are not, and this has implications for the type of therapy that should be given to patients. Normally, to determine whether or not the tumor has the gene mutation, it is necessary to perform a biopsy. However, the researchers tried to determine the presence of gene mutations in the gene ALK studying the ADN contained in the blood of about 2,000 patients diagnosed with NSCLCusing the latest sequencing technologies ADN. They made it. With this new technology, they were able to identify patients with the gene mutation with the same reliability as performing a biopsy.
Even more impressive are, if possible, the results of another research group that also uses the latest sequencing technologies. ADN to determine the presence, not just of mutations, but of chemical modifications that are characteristic of tumors. These chemical modifications add so-called methyl groups (-CH3) to the ADN (a group of atoms derived from methane CH4). The presence of these chemical groups in the ADN Modifies how genes work. Therefore, many tumors change their methylation pattern from ADNwhich allows them to grow faster.
The analysis through these new technologies of the ADN contained in the blood of 3,600 people, some of them cancer patients; others, no, managed to determine that this new methodology is capable of not only detecting whether a person suffers from cancer or not, but also the type of cancer they suffer from.
These new cancer detection and diagnosis techniques can soon be added to those we already have today to be able to make early diagnoses with much greater reliability than we currently have.
References: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-09/dci-nbt092519.php
Jorge Laborda, November 10, 2019
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