New blood test for ovarian cancer patients ‘could save lives’ – by revealing if chemotherapy drugs are working
The simple check - known as a liquid biopsy - measures levels of DNA from a tumour in the blood
A BREAKTHROUGH blood test will reveal if ovarian cancer patients are responding to their treatment.
The simple check - known as a liquid biopsy - measures levels of DNA from a tumour in the blood stream.
It promises to transform how ovarian cancer patients are treated by giving medics a way of monitoring if chemotherapy drugs are working or not.
Doctors could then change treatment if the therapy is ineffective.
It is the fifth most common cancer in women, with 7,400 cases a year.
There are currently few effective ways of finding out if a treatment is effective beyond watching to see if the tumour grows with regular scans.
But scientists at the University of Cambridge found they can measure the levels of a specific mutated gene found in the most common form of ovarian cancer.
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Dr James Brenton, who led the research at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, said: “There’s a need for a test to find out quickly whether ovarian cancer patients are benefiting from chemotherapy.
"This test could be a cheap, quick and easy way to get this information.”
He cautioned the results would need to undergo a larger trial before it could be used more widely.
Professor Peter Johnson, chief clinician at Cancer Research UK, said: “This could be a good way to test new types of drugs that target cancer cells specifically and spare patients the side effects from treatments if they are not working.”
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