Liquid Biopsy and Cancer Screening

Fernando
Fernando
2 min de lectura

Liquid biopsy is a good alternative, which in addition to being non-invasive, allows information to be collected from tumor tissues in places that are really inaccessible or that cannot be accessed due to other health complications.

Liquid Biopsy and Cancer Screening – Health – WebMediums
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Functioning according to medical studies

One of the greatest advances in the medical market is the liquid biopsy ; which allows the molecules that cause tumors to be analyzed, as well as the cells of the body fluids.

Testing detects these foreign agents in the bloodstream, urine, saliva, or cerebrospinal fluid; so that they are subsequently evaluated with molecular genomic analysis.

These transformations of the plasmatic DNA of cancer patients are those observed in the main tumor.

How is DNA analyzed?

For this, the following techniques are available:

Massive Sequence or NGS (Next Generation Sequencing). Arranged so that exact mutations of the tumor are detected. These can be found in the entire genome or just in a group of genes.

It allows detecting alteration in frequencies, even less than 0.05%.

Digital PCR. This procedure consists of increasing the surrounding tumor DNA fragments in order to be able to detect the mutation signal or the wild-type sequence.

Application of this new technology

This procedure has revolutionized cancer detection techniques, since it allows us to know earlier the presence of these formations that sometimes end the life of the human being.

Even with the use of liquid biopsy, it has been possible to locate the surrounding tumor DNA in blood with long periods of time, thus observing the efficiency in comparison with the methods usually used.

Pros and cons of this medical alternative

As it is a recent discovery, there is still a lack of experience to be able to properly recognize biomarkers in many types of cancer.

And while it is true that there is still much to discover and learn about this innovative method; It is also a latent reality that the liquid biopsy will have a great impact on the early detection of this terrible disease.

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