Recent Technological Breakthroughs to Revolutionize Cancer Diagnostics

Cancer continues to be one of the most lethal diseases among humans, despite years of considerable progress made in its diagnosis and treatment. According to the World Health Organization, cancer is the second most frequent cause of death in the world, with 8.8 million people dying from this disease in 2015 alone.

Two of the most significant problems in the treatment of cancer are late-stage presentation and inaccessible diagnosis. Cancer is often detected in its later stages. By then, the functioning of crucial organs has been compromised and is on its way to spreading throughout the body. As a result, methods for early detection of cancer play a vital role in identifying the most appropriate and effective treatment option. Cancer diagnostics is, therefore, an active area of current research.

For the longest time, cancer diagnosis relied primarily on invasive tissue biopsy since noninvasive diagnostic tests were generally known to be insufficient in identifying and defining a disease process of cancer. However, noninvasive alternatives are constantly being developed to accurately detect traces of cancer in the blood. Apart from detection of a tumor through common noninvasive imaging techniques such as ultrasound, MRI, PET scans, CT scans, and x-rays, development of noninvasive methods to further study tumor DNA is underway.

Next-generation Sequencing to Help Personalize Patient Care

NGS technology has made incredible progress in the last couple of decades in terms of sequencing chemistry, reliability, pipeline analyses, costs, and data interpretation. Some of the most recent technological developments have been in the field of oncology. Initially, traditional sequencing was done only for specific samples or DNA regions owing to the need for intensive work and capital. The Human Genome Project, for instance, took 13 years and billions of euros to sequence an entire human genome. NGS technology, however, offers the promise of a complete genome sequenced for less than US$1,000 per genome and done in just a few days. And even though we are yet to achieve this goal, the technology is sure to have an unprecedented impact on personalizing patient care for diseases such has cancer.

I am Rutuja Jathar, a freelance technical writer with 10+ years experience in writing technical blog,Market research blog,Study on New Business Opportunities for New Invester.