Blood test for early detection of breast cancer metastasis
Monday, May 18, 2015 - 09:00
in Health & Medicine
New hope has been given for a way of detecting metastases significantly earlier than is currently possible. The discovery is based on what is known as cell-free circulating DNA -- small fragments of genetic material from different cells which circulate in the blood. It is normal to have low amounts of such DNA material in the blood, but in the case of diseases such as cancer, these amounts can increase. Furthermore, in cancer patients, the circulating DNA contains the genetic mutations which are specific to the tumor.