BJC: develop a new technology that can accurately detect melanoma and accelerate the development of therapy

February 13, 2020 / BIOON / - recently, in a research report published in the international journal British Journal of cancer, scientists from Edith scientific university and other institutions found new methods to locate circulating melanoma in the blood through research, which may potentially help improve the monitoring of cancer patients and the development of future therapies Source: researchers at Edith Cowan University say the new technology could help detect circulating tumor cells, which could help develop new methods for cancer diagnosis and treatment Professor Elin gray, researcher, said that for the first time in this study, we have comprehensively described the diversity of melanoma circulating tumor cells; early research findings are expected to help us develop new methods to prevent the spread of melanoma to the whole body; when circulating tumor cells fall off from the primary tumor site and form secondary tumors in other organs through blood It indicates that cancer begins to spread If researchers can find a way to reliably detect these cells, they will have a chance to block the progression of melanoma and hopefully help develop new therapies for melanoma Up to now, melanoma circulating tumor cells are considered to be very difficult to capture, with detection rates ranging from 40% to 87% In this study, researchers explained why circulating tumor cells are so difficult to be found They believed that detection of circulating tumor cells could not be carried out in a single cut way, circulating tumor Cells vary greatly in shape and biological activity, so they don't look the same, and their responses to tests vary What's more, the circulating tumor cells of melanoma will be hidden in thousands of other cells and substances in the blood In a milliliter of blood, there are usually less than 10 cancer cells in 1 billion red cells and 1 million white cells It's like looking for a needle in a haystack Understanding the complexity of this task, researchers may be able to develop a multi-faceted approach Detection of melanoma circulating tumor cells; by combining the three experiments, researchers can increase the detection rate to 72%, and the test results are significantly higher than any other test Finally, the researchers said that this new method can effectively and reliably detect circulating tumor cells, but later they need to adjust and select the best combination to capture the most extensive circulating tumor cells Original source: Aya Bonilla, C.A., Morici, M., Hong, X et al Detection and predictive role of heterogeneous population of Mexican circular tumour cells Br J cancer (2020) Doi: 10.1038/s416-020-0750-9