New hope for cancer patients

Published on Saturday 4 February 2012 03:27

Cancer treatment could be transformed by a new “fluid biopsy” technique that spotlights tumour cells carried in the bloodstream, scientists have claimed.

Researchers have developed a way of attaching fluorescent “tags” to cancer cell proteins, making them glow under special light conditions. The technique was successfully tested in patients with breast, prostate and pancreatic cancer.

Study author Professor Peter Kuhn, from Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, said: “In the future, our fluid biopsy can effectively become the companion to the patient for life. If we can assess the disease in real time, we can make quantitative treatment decisions in real time.”