Blood test can measure effectiveness of treatments for aggressive skin cancers

Source: ECancer News, June 2019

Blood tests that track the amount of tumour DNA can – after only one month of drug therapy – detect how well treatment is working in patients with skin cancer, a new study finds.

The study takes advantage of the nature of cancer cells, which die and are replaced by new cells continuously as part of aggressive cancer growth.

Tumour cells burst as they die, spilling their DNA into the bloodstream, where it can be measured by tests, enabling improved diagnosis and better targeting of treatment based on each individual tumour’s DNA.

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