New cancer test treats patients with precision

PanARMENIAN.Net - Scientists at Glasgow University have developed a cancer testing technique that they say could transform the way the disease is treated, the BBC says.

The medical team based at The Glasgow Precision Oncology Laboratory are able to extract huge amounts of information from tiny fragments of DNA.

The information could identify the type of cancer tumour as well as any genetic variations and its resistance to drugs.

It could even point to a cancer patient's prognosis.

It is what is known as "precision medicine", because it could allow doctors to match treatments to individual patients.

Andrew Biankin, regius professor of surgery at Glasgow University, said that it was all about "getting the right treatment to the patient at the right time".

Prof Biankin, an international expert in genetic research and precision oncology, said methods of measuring differences in disease have been "relatively crude".

He said: "In cancer we use a microscope to look at the differences in what we see in the individual cells, that gives us a certain granularity.

"So we can group things to a certain degree but many of the treatments we use don't work in most patients."