Liquid cancer test offers hope for alternative to painful biopsies

Chicago

A BLOOD test to detect cancer mutations produced results that generally agree with those of an invasive tumour biopsy, researchers reported, heralding a time when diagnosing cancer and monitoring its progression may become less painful and risky.

The blood tests, known as liquid biopsies, represent one of the hottest trends in oncology. They take advantage of the fact that DNA fragments from tumours can be found in tiny amounts in the blood of patients with cancer.