'Holy grail of cancer research': doctors positive about early detection blood test

[Calista241]

Source: The Guardian

A blood test for 10 different types of cancers could one day help doctors screen for the disease before patients show symptoms, researchers at the world’s largest gathering of oncologists have said.

The test, called a liquid biopsy, screens for cancer by detecting tiny bits of DNA released by cancer cells into blood. The test had particularly good results for ovarian and pancreatic cancers, though the number of cancers detected was small.

Researchers hope the test will become part of a “universal screening” tool that doctors can use to detect cancer in patients.

“This is potentially the holy grail of cancer research, to find cancers that are currently hard to cure at an earlier stage when they are easier to cure,” said Dr Eric Klein, lead author of the research from Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Institute. “We hope this test could save many lives.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/01/doctors-welcome-possible-holy-grail-of-cancer-research

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This is big, giant news.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. If they can beat natural immunity to the punch, that'll be good money for Big Pharma

I've read we all have cancer cells at various stages of our lives. Question is whether our immune system does its job or is not strong enough to kill the cancer cells.

[nolabels]

22. Sure some more than others have 'natural immunity' but that doesn't stop people with the nurture

My guess with my background as mechanic forty years and trying to study the human body as well is that the better you take care of it the better it will be with you at the end.

Have you seen anything about the Keto diet? I have been using it to control and get rid of MRSA infections but they also say it helps a lot in cancer prevention and treatments as well

How the Ketogenic Diet Weakens Cancer Cells
By Dr. David Jockers DC, MS, CSCS
https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/ketogenic-diet-weakens-cancer-cells/

[bucolic_frolic]

23. akin to several metabolic diets used to prevent diabetes type 2

Slow carbs and low carbs. I'm not getting on well with dairy. Thanks for the ideas!

[apnu]

2. And how many tens of thousands will the test cost the patient?

Big Pharma does nothing for you, only for itself.

[tazkcmo]

4. My thought also. n/t

[sharedvalues]

11. Yes but this work is being led by academics

These tests will not be expensive.

The tests don’t work well yet, but the govt (through NIH ) is investing a lot of money into blood tests for cancer.

These kind of “liquid biopsies” should be about a few hundred dollars. Way cheaper than a procedure to take tissue for a biopsy.

[apnu]

24. I did not mean the testing to discover the science or method, I meant...

... the cost of the test to the patient when the test is in production. Academics will not be administering that screening, but the for-profit medical industry will. This same industry that charges $700 bucks for a bag of saltwater.

[airplaneman]

15. My feeling is why bother to find these wounder drugs that nobody can afford.

I knew somebody with ALS whose doctor wanted her to take the test that costs $17,000 to see if you have ALS (not covered by medicare by the way) - that person eventually died of ALS.
-Airplane

[Hoyt]

3. Good. Of course, it might be like PSAs, some people don't want to know.

[lame54]

5. Can they do the same with elections?

[mcar]

6. This sounds very promising

My mother died from ovarian CA nearly 30 years ago at age 62. No symptoms until it was too late. My sis and I both had our ovaries removed when we were done with them.

[Stellar]

7. When they told me 4 months ago...

that I had an aggressive form of uterine cancer, they took my uterus and my fallopian tubes, the works. The Doctors have been telling me that if you must get this disease, this is the one to get because in this day an age it is the one most curable of all the cancers. Although I'm going through chemotherapy, they tell me that I'm disease free. The chemo is to be sure that they can get the cells that can't be seen.

btw: there was no cancer in my family, so I didn't know to keep up with this.

[sharedvalues]

12. Good news. :)

Glad to hear you’re doing well. Stay strong and enjoy every good day you’ve got! As we all should... carpe diem.

[Moostache]

8. We need to start a very necessary national conversation about health care and life spans...

There is an enormous gulf opening between the rich and well-cared for and the poor and neglected.

At one time, this was mainly limited to access...access to homes, schools, entertainment venues, etc....but now it is becoming far more insidious and it is access to food, nutrition, health care and increasingly life span.

The rich are living longer and the poor are paying for it with shorter, less privileged lives of want and sacrifice that the rich avert from their view and pretend is not happening.

Do we, as Americans, as a nation, believe that technology and science and medicinal breakthroughs are for everyone? or only for the very few? Those who can pay for such things as cancer screening, testosterone boosting, telomere testing and therapy? If we start saving millions of lives and age the population to appease the Baby Boomers (as WILL happen), what impact does this have on the nation in the 20-40 years AFTER the last of them die off?

No one is discussing the crisis levels of available nursing staff and facilities....
No one is discussing the costs of having several million advanced age citizens survive longer than history shows is 'normal'...
No one is discussing how this gets paid for in a nation obsessed with giving money back to the richest and forcing the middle class and poor to bear the brunt of the costs that benefited the rich disproportionally to begin with...

We are not ready for what is already starting....the retirements of the Boomers en masse. We are not discussing or facing the cost of what is building...the aging and dying of those same Boomers. This is a situation that has ran through American society since the Baby Boom first started...they have changed society at every stage of life and are continuing to do so now, only with a GOP-led government that is all too willing to deal in make-believe and all too reticent to face cold, hard facts...

Something's got to break this stalemate of inaction in the face of extinction-level consequences...we cannot address the problems we refuse to even acknowledge, especially when they are building right in front of our faces and no one is sitting up to take proper notice...

I do not have the answers, and I am relatively certain no one else does either...but if we do not start really discussing this and get real with the consequences of continued inaction, then the results are certain to be utterly horrifying in the end...

[YOHABLO]

9. The Rich do not feel obligated to supplement a healthcare system for the poor.

I talk to many who are of 'means' and this is what I hear. They're indignant about Medicare and Medicaid ... everybody is on their own. If they cannot afford good health insurance, then it's their fault.

[sharedvalues]

13. I only hear this from Republicans

Most Democrats I know, rich and poor, believe we should have good healthcare for all even if they need to pay for it.

(GOP has brainwashed upper middle class white people into thinking they can pay low taxes, destroy the social safety net and healthcare, and come out ahead. It’s a big con.)

The Democrats I know care about other people- that’s why they are Democrats

[AllyCat]

10. The first thing I thought of is fantastic!

The second thing I thought of is how insurance companies will use this to screw people.

We need national healthcare NOW.

[Bayard]

18. Same here

Intestinal cancer is big in my family.

My next thought was: how can this be exploited by insurance companies and employers, in pre-employment exams.

[Duppers]

20. YES!

Europe works fine without parasitic insurance companies.

[Duppers]

19. "appease the Baby Boomers"?

Yeah, let me go kill myself right now!

Reminder: not all of us boomers are rethugians - we make up a big chunk of DU.

Yes, we need Medicare for EVERYONE, like yesterday!

[locks]

14. Too late for my dear daughter

The wealthiest country in the history of the world can provide everyone guns and bombs but can't afford research and health care for them.

[area51]

16. I'm so sorry. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

17. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread Calista

[Beaverhausen]

21. There are hundreds of different types of cancers

Fuck cancer