1. When her husband was undergoing cancer treatment, Cindy Perez of Southwest Ranches, Fla., learned about a new blood test that could help find early cancers. The 50-year-old said she felt fine, but her husband urged her to take the test anyway. To her surprise, the blood test — called Galleri — came back positive. Scans revealed a small tumor in her groin and a diagnosis of mantle cell lymphoma, a rare but aggressive form of cancer. She was treated and now, two years later, she’s in remission. “For me, the test was a miracle,” she said. “A real big miracle.” Many experts believe that such tests, which analyze substances in the blood that might indicate cancer, represent a remarkable new chapter in cancer detection. The tests may be especially useful finding “silent” cancers — such as pancreatic or ovarian cancer — which often don’t cause symptoms until the disease is advanced and more difficult to treat. These new cancer detection blood tests — about 20 are in various stages of development — measure cancer “signals,” which are biological substances shed by cancers such as fragments of tumor DNA. Some can even identify the organ or tissue involved. (Source: washingtonpost.com)
2. Some stealthy cancers remain undetected until they have spread from their source to distant organs. Now scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that outperforms pathologists at identifying the origins of metastatic cancer cells that circulate in the body. The proof-of-concept model could help doctors to improve the diagnosis and treatment of late-stage cancer, and extend people’s lives. “That’s a pretty significant finding — that it can be used as an assistive tool,” says Faisal Mahmood, who studies AI applications in health care at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. (Source: nature.com)
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to News Items to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.