The current research methods, which inform doctors about the effectiveness of the treatment undertaken in cancer, involve a long waiting time for the results. And time is of the utmost importance in the treatment of cancer. Now there is a chance to get a response within 24 hours, says the Science Alert website.
Scientists have developed a way to analyze blood that gives a quick answer to whether the treatment is working. The method requires a small amount of blood sample and the test takes less than an hour. In this way, doctors could regularly monitor a patient’s response to treatment and make adjustments without undue delay. Scientists from Singapore are working on the method. The technology can be widely used in about three years.
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“Conventional procedures such as tumor imaging are not only expensive but also delayed,” says biophysicist Shao Huilin of the National University of Singapore. «With these methods, the effectiveness of the treatment can only be determined after weeks. With ExoSCOPE, we can directly measure drug efficacy results within 24 hours of starting treatment. This will significantly reduce the time and cost of monitoring cancer treatment»Says the biophysicist. “Current technologies for measuring drug-target interactions require complex processing and invasive tissue biopsies, limiting their clinical usefulness for monitoring cancer treatment,” adds Sijun Pan, a chemical biologist.
A method called ExoSCOPE uses properties of extracellular vesicles. These are small, invisible even under a microscope biological structures (with a diameter of up to approx. 5000 nm) present in all body fluids and the intercellular matrix. They contain a rich composition of biomolecules and markers on the surface. Their primary function is intercellular communication. They have become the focus of scientists and doctors relatively recently. There are more and more diagnostic methods using their properties. Researchers in Singapore have found that cancer cells that are attacked by a drug will secrete extra-cellular vesicles with traces of the drug.
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By analyzing the light signals emitted by the collected blood sample, the ExoSCOPE system can tell if drugs have reached their target in the body and see if treatment is working or if there is any resistance Science Alert reports.
The best anti-cancer prevention is regular examinations. At Medonet Market you will find diagnostic test packages for men and women.
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