Madrid
Updated:
Save
Liquid biopsy, the technique that detects tumor cells or their products as fragments of circulating DNA, will play a key role in the early diagnosis of cancer. think so Luis Paz-Arespresident of the Spanish Association for Cancer Research (ASEICA), who points out that liquid biopsy can help find cancer at an early stage.
Although today it is still in the research phase, «we think that with the improvement of the sensitivities of the different techniques that currently exist, biopsy can help in the early detection of many tumors because, it must be remembered, he said, that many cancers they do not have methods for its early diagnosis and, furthermore, not all methods are, today, as sensitive as we would like”.
“That is going to be the way forward”, comments Enriqueta Felip, president of the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM). Besides, “liquid biopsy will have to be integrated with other techniques, such as radiology or artificial intelligence strategies that will allow us to make algorithms to identify those people with the highest risk of having and cancer and thus be able to identify them early.
Liquid biopsy is like performing an analysis, although in this case what is sought are tumor cells or their products such as circulating DNA fragments.
The applications of this technique currently cover both the obtaining of information on the molecular alterations of tumors and the minimally invasive follow-up of patients throughout their treatment.
Paz-Ares considers that this technique will also “help to know if a patient has residual disease or not, since a molecular technology like this is always going to be more accessible than a CT scan,” says Paz-Ares.
As Enriqueta Felip comments, “Liquid biopsy is an important element in current research in Oncologyand numerous studies have shown its role in determining the efficacy of treatments early and in identifying mutations involved in resistance to target drugs».
And in this sense, Paz-Ares highlights the importance of the technique becoming accessible to patients because some techniques “are not yet available in the service portfolios of hospitals in all the autonomous communities”.
The expert, however, recalls that there are different liquid biopsy techniques depending on their objectives and complexity. Thus, some versions focus on the detection of alterations in very specific targets that allow determining which therapies can be used. However, others are based on the massive sequencing of the material obtained, which allows, for example, to have a very precise image of the molecular heterogeneity of the patient’s tumor.
Paz-Ares explains that among the advantages of this technique “we find that it is a minimally invasive procedure, without the complications that conventional biopsies usually entail. In addition, it allows monitoring the evolution of the treatment of patients in real time, as well as planning a more personalized treatment both before and during treatment.
See them
comments