TESTING FOR CANCER HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER.

The prime concern of a doctor after diagnosis, is drawing out the best possible treatment that leads to the least side effects in the patient. The challenge is to attain that balance. Therefore, pathological tests for diagnosis and selecting the most appropriate choice of antibiotics for precise treatment has been used as the standard practice in treating infectious diseases.
In cancer treatment however, the traditional method for identifying the mutation causing the cancer has been through biopsies, which involve invasive surgical procedures through which tissue samples are extracted from a patient's tumour. However, it is not possible to obtain such samples if the patient is inoperable or the tumour is located in a risky area, as in case of recurrences in brain and other regions. Dr. A.V.S. Suresh, an Oncologist with Continental Hospitals, Hyderabad, tells us about the advanced technique called Next Gen Sequencing (NGS).
NGS has made it possible to map the genomic makeup of a cancer tumour and identify personalised treatment options with just a blood test. It uses the tumour DNA to predict the tumour sensitivity based on analysis of existing mutations in the cancer development pathway. It also highlights the possible side effects of various therapies based on the genetic makeup of a given patient. Known as 'liquid biopsies', these tests fuel hopes of better treatment options for patients and are an integral aspect of precision medicine.
The ability to assess genomic markers that are included in various international guidelines like NCCN (National Comprehensive Cancer Network), FDA and information on sensitivity, resistance and toxicity to relevant approved therapies for solid tumour treatment makes NGS a potent tool in detecting many recurrent diseases.
Dr. Suresh says, "This is a great step in improving the quality of life of terminally ill patients. If made available widely at an affordable price, I am sure this will become a handy tool for Oncologists and will help cancer patients".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VIEWS OF MANU AND KAUTILYA ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

The state performed its duty of protection of society and the individual through coercive enforcement of the standards of justice based on the concept of ' Dharma '. From the Vedic period onward, the perennial attitude of Indian culture had been justice and righteousness. Justice, in the Indian context, was a human expression of a wider universal principle of nature and if men were entirely true to nature, their actions would be spontaneously just. Men experienced Justice, in the sense of a distributive equity, as moral justice, social justice, and legal justice. Each of these forms of justice was viewed as a particularisation of the general principle of the universe seen as a total organism. Impartial administration of justice was always regarded as one of the main duties of the King and he was considered to be the fountain of justice. The ethical code of society and its cultural standards were inter-related. The cultural maturity and social amicability and even their det...
Read more

ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER TOMBS IN EGYPT DATING BACK 2,000 YEARS.

Egypt's antiquities ministry said on 14th August, 2017 (Tuesday) that archaeologists have discovered three tombs dating more than 2,000 years, from the Ptolemaic Period. The discovery was made in the Nile valley province of Minya south of Cairo, in an area known as al-kamin al-Sahrawi. The unearthed sarcophagi and clay fragments suggest that the area was a large necropolis from sometime between the 27th Dynasty and the Greco-Roman period. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 
Read more

ANCIENT INDIA'S LINKS TO TODAY.

You may not have heard of Shu-ilishu but he is a man of great significance. He reaches out to us from almost 4,300 years ago, through a small Akkadian cylinder seal now housed at the Louvre Museum in Paris. On the seal, you will find an image of him talking to two men. The inscription describes Shu-ilishu as the interpreter of the Meluhhan language. 'Meluha' was, in all probability, the term used by ancient Mesopotamians for the Indus Valley region, and the presence of an oficial 'interpreter' there indicates just how important the steady flow of good from the Indian sub-continent was.  Precious and vibrant lapis lazuli stones, carnelian beads, wood and even dogs would go across via old trade routes and ports like Lothal (in modern-day Gujarat) to Akkad, capital of the Akkadian Empire (03rd millennium BCE) and now in modern-day Iraq. There are also references to a settlement of Meluhhans in the city of Guabba in Sumer, in Mesopotamia.  The story of Shi-ilishu and ...
Read more