Blood based tests vs tumour biopsies for cancer diagnosis

MM is an incurable blood cancer
characterised by multifocal tumour
deposits throughout the bone marrow.
Patient image provided by Prof Andrew
Spencer

Professor Andrew Spencer's research on the use of liquid biopsies for cancer detection, diagnosis and treatment was picked up and profiled by ASH Clinical News, in an article titled 'Demystifying Liquid Biopsies', 1 May 2018.

See the CCS blog feature on the research for more detail, "New blood test potential game-changer for myeloma patients" (2 June 2017)

“We’re still in the developmental phase but the concept has been proven,” Professor Spencer said. “We’ve demonstrated that you can detect more mutations and track what’s happening to them, you can measure them and follow them sequentially – which would be impossible in bone marrow biopsies,” he said.

Reference
Mithraprabhu S, Khong T, Ramachandran M et al. Circulating tumour DNA analysis demonstrates spatial mutational heterogeneity that coincides with disease relapse in myeloma. Leukemia. 2017;31:1695-705.