Doctor Alok Khorana, director of the gastrointestinal malignancies program at the Cleveland Clinic had said a blood test sample undergoing study shows that there will soon be a way out for many patients with colon cancer, as to decide whether they need chemotherapy after surgery or can safely skip it.
Khorana added that many patients with colon cancer are currently given additional chemotherapy because doctors can’t predict who will or will not benefit from this. This is why the blood test would be needed for study, and this will help many patients safely skip chemotherapy and its harsh side effects.
The blood test would identify small fragments of genetic material called circulating tumor DNA (or DNA), which cancer sheds into the bloodstream.
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In the study, researchers looked for the presence of this circulating tumor DNA in 1,000 patients who had undergone surgery to remove stage II, III, and IV colon cancer. A positive test suggests there are still residual cancer cells in the body. In contrast, those with negative tests might be able to skip the taxing and toxic treatment safely.
A lot of factors, according to the study, that any patent who had the liquid biopsy or ctDNA positive after the surgery is at a very high risk of 10 times reoccurrence; other factors are how progressive the tumor and how number of lymph nodes present
Khorana stated that oncologists use other clues, such as the tumor’s characteristics, to help if the patients need additional chemotherapy. But this new study suggests the blood test would be more accurate.
The findings of this study are provocative but more is needed to change clinical practice, “although I foresee that’s going to happen very soon shortly.
He added that I would encourage patients to join those trials because that is the best way to find out whether drugs work and whether tests work.
