Can a ‘liquid biopsy’ detect cancer and save lives?
A study showed that a blood test can be used to help screen for nasopharyngeal cancer, but that doesn't mean "liquid biopsies" are ready for prime time.
Gut Check is a periodic look at health claims made by studies, newsmakers, or conventional wisdom. We ask: Should you believe this?
The claim:
A blood test can detect DNA associated with nasopharyngeal cancer in seemingly healthy people, leading to earlier diagnosis and saving lives, researchers in Hong Kong reported on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Tell me more:
Diagnosing tumors via a simple blood test has become a holy grail (a company developing such is even named ). Much of the research is aimed at figuring out how to detect and analyze “circulating in 1977. Circulating tumor DNA is rare compared to other DNA in the blood, however, so although there are intense efforts underway to detect ever-lower concentrations of it, the Hong Kong scientists looked for something else: DNA from Epstein-Barr, a virus that can cause nasopharyngeal cancer.
