New DNA Tests Aimed at Reducing Colon Cancer
By NICHOLAS WADE
NYT
Two new DNA-based tests, one of them described at a meeting in Philadelphia on Thursday, hold the promise of detecting early — and sharply reducing — colon cancer, a disease that afflicts 150,000 people a year in the United States and costs an estimated $14 billion to treat.
The new tests could help most people avoid colonoscopies, which are routinely prescribed for people over age 50. Instead of screening the entire population, doctors could instead refer people for a colonoscopy only if they had tested positive in one of the DNA tests.
Unlike colonoscopy, in which a seeing tube is threaded up the colon, the DNA tests are noninvasive, so more people would take them. Both tests could be brought to market within two years.
One of the tests, developed by Exact Sciences of Madison, Wis., looks in stool samples for the presence of four altered genes that are diagnostic of colon cancer. The test could catch cancerous and precancerous tumors at an early stage, when they are curable, and allow doctors to remove them promptly.
(More here.)
NYT
Two new DNA-based tests, one of them described at a meeting in Philadelphia on Thursday, hold the promise of detecting early — and sharply reducing — colon cancer, a disease that afflicts 150,000 people a year in the United States and costs an estimated $14 billion to treat.
The new tests could help most people avoid colonoscopies, which are routinely prescribed for people over age 50. Instead of screening the entire population, doctors could instead refer people for a colonoscopy only if they had tested positive in one of the DNA tests.
Unlike colonoscopy, in which a seeing tube is threaded up the colon, the DNA tests are noninvasive, so more people would take them. Both tests could be brought to market within two years.
One of the tests, developed by Exact Sciences of Madison, Wis., looks in stool samples for the presence of four altered genes that are diagnostic of colon cancer. The test could catch cancerous and precancerous tumors at an early stage, when they are curable, and allow doctors to remove them promptly.
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home