Breast Cancer Cells Can Be Detected in the Blood Stream

It has been reported that Researchers Discovered New Liquid Biopsy Test For Breast Cancer

Forbes (8/7/19) reports that there is a way to find breast cancer cells in a woman’s blood stream. “The test called ‘TARDIS’ (TArgeted DIgital Sequencing) has been suggested to be up to 100 times more sensitive than other existing blood-based cancer monitoring tests.” The new test “works by looking for tiny fragments of DNA which come from a patients tumor, but are found in the bloodstream called ‘circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA),’ and has been described to pick up as little as 2 parts of ctDNA in 100,000.”

Most women with breast cancer have been diagnosed in the early stage, when they don’t need chemotherapy, and don’t need monitoring that is this advanced. However, it’s a boost to those women with the more advanced disease so that they potentially can be notified earlier if their chemotherapy needs to be adjusted for better potential for success. This technology of the liquid biopsy has not been studied as a screening test which would be used in women not previously diagnosed, however, there are studies looking for such a test.