All about liquid biopsy: How a simple blood test can spot cancer quickly
Unlike traditional biopsy, which requires cutting or inserting a needle to remove a piece of tumor, a liquid biopsy only requires a small blood sample.
One of the only ways to detect early cancer is that complex and stubborn disease can be treated soon. Once diagnosed, treatment may include a series of procedures that can be annoying for both the patient and the family.
However, one of the ways to trim the treatment process is using liquid biopsy, a blood test that tells you what type of treatment is best suited for cancer.
What is a liquid biopsy?
A liquid biopsy is a test that seeks signs of cancer in blood or other body fluids like urine. Unlike traditional biopsy, which requires cutting or inserting a needle to remove a piece of tumor, a liquid biopsy only requires a small blood sample.
The Chief Oncologist of the Art of Healing Cancer Center, Dr. According to Mandeep Singh, who often use this test, “liquid biopsy analyzes the material related to cancer present in body fluids, most blood, to collect important information about the disease.”
How does this work?
When cancer is present in the body, it often releases small pieces of genetic material in the blood. These can be:
- Circulating tumor DNA (CTDNA) – DNA pieces from tumors
- Circulating tumor cells (ctcs) – full cells that break from tumor
- Cell-Free DNA (CFDNA)-DNA from both normal and cancer cells includes
By analyzing these markers, doctors can detect cancer at an early stage, choose the most appropriate treatment, and even track how well a treatment is over time.
In fact, liquid biopsy can sometimes scan the romance of cancer before it can be scanned.
What else can it find out?
Liquid biopsy tests can also achieve genetic mutations such as BRCA1 or TP53, which can increase the risk of developing some cancers of a person. Therefore, in some cases, it can also be used to predict the risk of cancer before the disease starts.
Interestingly, researchers are now working on new technology, which sees how the immune system is reacting, rather than trying to find cancer cells in the blood. Since cancer is made up of its own cells of the body, since changes in white blood cells (WBCs) can be another powerful way to detect tracking cancer.
A known limit
Despite its many advantages, liquid biopsy has a defect. It is not very useful for detection of brain tumors, because due to blood-brain barrier-one protective layer that prevents many substances (including cancer cells from the brain) from entering the bloodstream.
As research increases and technology improves, liquid biopsy may soon become a regular part of how we diagnose, diagnosed and monitored cancer.
