Hi. Recently, on the TV I heard a talk about new chances of detecting certain cancers. The interviewers were wondering whether blood tests could help in the detection of cancer.

Morphology is one of the most basic and most frequently performed tests. According to researchers at the University of California at San Diego, this simple test can detect the cancer and determine where the tumor cells grow. Many cancers, especially in the advanced stage, cause anemia. For example macrocythemic anemia can signal gastric cancer.

 It turned out that in every cancer patient not only cancer cells circulate in blood, but also in this blood circulates ‘cell-free DNA’ that comes from cancer cells. This free DNA is different from the DNA from healthy cells. However, the possibility of its detection is greater with the increasing number of these cells. So, it complicates the situation because it indicates an advanced stage of the disease. It is very hard to detect cancer when these cells are scarce. 

 This is probably a step forward, but unfortunately, we can not call this a breakthrough. I hope it will come soon.