It Will Prevent Patients From Undergoing Costly, Unnecessary Invasive Procedures Like Biopsies
A simple blood test developed by British scientists might turn out to be a giant leap in cancer diagnostics.Researchers from the University of Bradford say their test will enable doctors to rule out cancer in patients presenting with certain symptoms, saving time and preventing costly and unnecessary invasive procedures such as colonoscopies and biopsies.
Early results have shown the method gives a high degree of accuracy diagnosing
cancer and pre-cancerous conditions from the blood of patients with melanoma, colon cancer and lung cancer.The Lymphocyte Genome Sensitivity (LGS) test looks at white blood cells and measures the damage caused to their DNA when subjected to different intensities of ultraviolet light (UVA), which is known to damage DNA. The results of the study show a clear distinction between the damage to the white blood cells from patients with cancer, with pre-cancerous conditions and from healthy patients.
Professor Diana Anderson,
from the University’s School of Life Sciences led the research.“White blood cells are part of the body’s natural defence system,” she said.
“We know that they are under stress when they are fighting cancer or other diseases, so I wondered whether anything measureable could be seen if we put them under further stress with UVA light. We found that people with cancer have DNA which is more easily damaged by ultraviolet light than other people, so the test shows the sensitivity to damage of all the DNA — the genome — in a cell.”
This study looked at blood samples taken from 208 individuals. The samples were coded, anonymised, randomised and then exposed to UVA light through five different depths of agar (a type of culture medium).The UVA damage was observed in the form of pieces of DNA being pulled in an electric field towards the positive end of the field, causing a comet-like tail. In the LGS test, the longer the tail the more is the DNA damage and the measurements correlated to those patients who were ultimately diagnosed with can
cer (58), those with pre-cancerous conditions (56) and those who were healthy (94).“These are early results completed on three different types of cancer and we accept that more research needs to be done; but these results so far are remarkable,” said Professor Anderson. Professor Anderson believes that if the LGS proves to be a useful cancer diagnostic test, it would be a highly valuable addition to the more traditional investigative procedures for detecting cancer.
Sources @ http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Now-a-simple-blood-test-can-detect-cancer-30072014023004
Early results have shown the method gives a high degree of accuracy diagnosing
cancer and pre-cancerous conditions from the blood of patients with melanoma, colon cancer and lung cancer.The Lymphocyte Genome Sensitivity (LGS) test looks at white blood cells and measures the damage caused to their DNA when subjected to different intensities of ultraviolet light (UVA), which is known to damage DNA. The results of the study show a clear distinction between the damage to the white blood cells from patients with cancer, with pre-cancerous conditions and from healthy patients.
Professor Diana Anderson,
from the University’s School of Life Sciences led the research.“White blood cells are part of the body’s natural defence system,” she said.
“We know that they are under stress when they are fighting cancer or other diseases, so I wondered whether anything measureable could be seen if we put them under further stress with UVA light. We found that people with cancer have DNA which is more easily damaged by ultraviolet light than other people, so the test shows the sensitivity to damage of all the DNA — the genome — in a cell.”
This study looked at blood samples taken from 208 individuals. The samples were coded, anonymised, randomised and then exposed to UVA light through five different depths of agar (a type of culture medium).The UVA damage was observed in the form of pieces of DNA being pulled in an electric field towards the positive end of the field, causing a comet-like tail. In the LGS test, the longer the tail the more is the DNA damage and the measurements correlated to those patients who were ultimately diagnosed with can
cer (58), those with pre-cancerous conditions (56) and those who were healthy (94).“These are early results completed on three different types of cancer and we accept that more research needs to be done; but these results so far are remarkable,” said Professor Anderson. Professor Anderson believes that if the LGS proves to be a useful cancer diagnostic test, it would be a highly valuable addition to the more traditional investigative procedures for detecting cancer.
Sources @ http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Now-a-simple-blood-test-can-detect-cancer-30072014023004
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