Breast Cancer Blood Test Identifies Tumor Returns

First Posted: Aug 28, 2015 11:36 PM EDT
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Continuously growing advancements are helping women with breast cancer live longer healthier lives. And part of that process is detecting the health problem sooner and making sure the health treatments are successful as the patient moves forward. 

New findings published in the journal Science Translational Medicine reveal that a simple blood test may be helpful in detecting the possible relapse of early stage breast cancer that has already been treated, identifying tumors up to eight months before they would even show up on medical scans.

The test works by identifying cancer DNA that sheds into the patient's blood stream to monitor whether it shows signs of coming back. More specifically, it uses a technique that involves personalized digital polymerase chain reaction to track mutations via certain subtypes of breast cancer.

"We have shown how a simple blood test has the potential to accurately predict which patients will relapse from breast cancer, much earlier than we can currently," lead author Nicholas Turner at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, says via Discovery News

In this recent study, researchers followed 55 patients who had undergone chemotherapy after their surgery to remove early breast cancer. Afterwards, the researchers regularly collected blood samples from them for the next two years, analyzing the samples and specifically looking for tumor-specific mutations.

Cancer returned in 15 of the patients. Yet in 12 of them, the blood tests accurately predicted signs of the cancer coming back at around the eighth month mark.

Researchers believe this will be particularly helpful when it comes to future treatment for breast cancer. Though detection of breast cancer is not always difficult, making sure that the treatment has been successful is another thing, completely.

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