Only according to indications
Blood test will reveal cancer patients who do not need chemotherapy
Sergey Kolenov, Hi-tech+
Cancer chemotherapy leads to many unpleasant and dangerous side effects, and the need to attend procedures limits mobility. But not every patient needs chemotherapy, scientists from Australia and New Zealand are sure.
Most patients who have undergone surgery to remove a cancerous tumor receive chemotherapy as a preventive measure. Doctors prescribe it because there are no reliable methods to assess the risk of cancer returning yet. However, such prevention is fraught with unpleasant effects and health problems – from nausea and fatigue to cardiovascular diseases.
The test, developed by a team of scientists from Australia and New Zealand, can save many people from unnecessary chemotherapy and its side effects. It is based on the search for cancer DNA circulating in the blood after the tumor has already been removed.
If there is little or no tumor DNA, it can be assumed that the cancer will not return. Otherwise, the patient should be prescribed chemotherapy.
Drawings from the press release of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Cancer blood test tried to prevent unnecessary chemo - VM.
The first trials of the technique, launched in 2015, showed that it effectively divides operated patients with early stages of colon cancer into groups with high and low risk of recurrence. In 2017, the study was expanded to women with ovarian cancer.
Scientists suspect that many cases of ovarian cancer can be treated without chemotherapy at all, but today all patients receive high doses of anti-cancer drugs.
400 patients from 40 hospitals in Australia and New Zealand have already joined the trials. The ultimate goal of the researchers is to bring the number of participants to 2,000, which will make the experiment the largest in the history of cancer prediction techniques. It is expected that a new phase of trials for ovarian cancer will start in 2019, and for colon cancer – in 2021.
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