Personalized Cancer Tracking

A newly developed ability to track the progress of cancers based on genetic alterations unique to each individual has been heralded as “revolutionary.” The technique uses the polymerase chain reaction to amplify tumour DNA shed into the blood stream. The tumour DNA is identified by individually specific DNA mutations. This furthers the importance of personalised medicine from just treatment to include both prognosis and monitoring.

The approach has however only been used in 6 proof of concept cases; testing 4 colon cancers and 2 breast cancers. The cost of monitoring in this way is also likely to be controversial with the cost of sequencing and analysing a single sample being $5500 vs. $1500 for a CT scan. Researchers however are optimisitc with the cost of sequencing rapdily decreasing and becoming more accesible to clinicians and their patients.

More info:
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/1002...s.2010.79.html
Leary, R. J. et al. Sci. Transl. Med. 2, 20ra14 (2010).