Precision Oncology
A breakthrough technology has been created for tumor biopsy in the oncologist's office
Svetlana Maslova, Hi-tech+
Soon, doctors will be able to make more accurate and faster decisions about treatment strategies for a particular patient.
A group of researchers from the USA has introduced a new technology for tumor biopsy, which includes the analysis of cancer cell proteogenomics data. The analysis combines information on tens of thousands of genes and proteins for a more accurate understanding of the type of tumor. The results are published in the journal Nature Communications (Satpathy et al., Microscaled proteogenomic methods for precision oncology) – VM.
The Micro-scaled method holds promise for cancer diagnosis press release can be read on the Baylor College of Medicine website.
Until now, this type of proteogenomic analysis has only been possible in the presence of large tumor samples taken during surgery.
The new method works with a small tumor sample, which can be taken during a routine diagnostic examination of a patient with suspected cancer.
The accuracy of the results is very high, the authors stressed.
"Our methodology includes the analysis of phosphoproteins. For some types of cancer, for example, breast tumors, this is crucial," commented co–author of the study, scientist Matthew Ellis.
The method was tested on patients with breast cancer before and 48-72 hours after the start of chemotherapy, which was targeted at a specific biomarker – the ErbB2 protein.
The biopsy showed a statistically significant decrease in the level of ErbB2 in people who reacted to chemotherapy. And for treatment-resistant patients, several resistance mechanisms have been identified that can be used to apply alternative therapeutic approaches.
"People are dying of cancer because in many ways we don't know what type of cancer we are treating, what features it has," Ellis stressed.
Now the team has received evidence that the principle of the new technology is effective and can be used to study individual tumors and choose personal treatment methods. The team is now planning to confirm the results on a larger sample of patients.
Recently, other American researchers have introduced a "virtual biopsy" method for the diagnosis of skin cancer. Their technology determines the boundaries of the tumor at a distance.
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