The discovery of an American research group has made it possible to reconstruct the “family tree” of metastases and to adapt therapies.
A simple blood test would suffice to reconstruct the “family tree” of metastases, by understanding how the tumor has spread in the body. This is the result of a study conducted by a research group at the Massachusetts General Hospital, published in the journal of the American Academy of Sciences (Pnas).
The test, conducted on 22 colon cancer patients, determined whether there was a “relatedness” relationship between the primary tumor and the metastatic cells, as well as the order in which they spread. This, in order to implement more effective and more targeted care strategies.
“If we succeed in reconstructing the family tree of all the metastases of a patient, explained the head of the study, Kamila Naxerova, we could determine how the different tumors are linked to each other and reconstruct the evolution of the Cancer. “
A simpler and faster method
Knowing this information is essential for providing targeted care. Until today, it was necessary to carry out a very complex and very long genetic analysis to obtain them, while the new test is faster.
Rather than analyzing the genetic sequence of the tumor as a whole, the new test focuses on certain fragments of DNA that are particularly sensitive to mutations, common errors that occur during cell divisions.
Detecting these differences could help the development of more targeted therapies, also for “less similar” metastases.
“We are now applying this methodology to answer clinically important questions about the biology of metastases in a larger number of patients,” said the study author. This is a quick and inexpensive method that could be applied to many other tumors ”
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