Non-invasive Liquid Biopsies: Good News!

Hello bOObs Bloggettes:

There seems to be an abundance of bad news in the world right now and I’ve been blogging on some pretty tough subject matters lately. So I wanted to change course and give you some good news!

The marvel of molecular medicine has come up wth something called “liquid biopsies.” This is important for you to know about if, God forbid, you or a loved one should ever get a cancer diagnosis. My Master’s thesis research was in the area of molecular genetics (aka, altering DNA in a lab) so I was very excited to learn of this new, safe technology.

I’ve recently blogged about the detriments of biopsies so I wanted to let you know there is another non-invasive way to get diagnosed for cancer without a biopsy (thumbs up or down). They’re called “liquid biopsies” because they simply have to get a blood sample from the patient and analyze if it contains cancer cells or a cancer cell’s DNA to diagnose.

Obviously, having one’s blood taken is a heckuva lot easier than undergoing a biopsy. I recently (and perhaps stupidly) decided to watch how biopsies are performed on YouTube videos — ICK! OUCH!  (And I wanted to be a doctor — ha) I’ve decided to voice without hesitation that drawing blood should be much, much preferred.

So that’s the good news.

The bad news (why is there almost always bad news connected to medical procedures?) is that the FDA, for some unknown reason, has only approved  liquid biopsies on advanced cancer patients — even though the National Cancer Institute says this is going to be a great technology for early diagnosis!

AND (we’re not through yet) somehow canines — which are getting cancer diagnoses at the same rate as women (1 in 3 women, 1 in 3 dogs) — have been given the okay to receive liquid biopsies from their veterinarians for early detection. Say whaaaaaa???

Modern Medicine frequently seems turned upside down and inside out, doesn’t it?

Remember that a doctor would only order a biopsy if they had good reason to suspect that a solid tumor had already formed (with the exception of the Stage 0 in situ pre-cancers we’ve discussed — which they biopsy regardless of no tumor being found, which leads to oodles of over-diagnoses and treatments of women, etc.).

But now for more good news: If you want to avoid a biopsy which carries with it some risk of seeding the cancer elsewhere in the body (see previous blog), infection, oftentimes pain — sometimes LOTS of pain — etc., you can send your blood sample overseas to a Greek company/laboratory (RGCC) that’s been highly recommended to me by a multitude of medical doctors and cancer patients.

Their website: https://imcwc.com/rgcc-test-greek-test/

This liquid biopsy test will pick up circulating cancer cells themselves and/or analyze DNA fragments, which can also be used to check for sensitivity to a particular chemo used (or other treatment regime) to see if will work on the type of cancer with which the patient has been diagnosed. This is important because it prevents wasted precious time on useless treatments for that patient and, in the case of chemo, alleviates toxic treatments that won’t work anyway.

(Why aren’t we already doing treatment sensitivity tests for all cancer patients? It seems like a no brainer to me. Maybe I can figure this puzzle out and report back in a later blog.)

Per a citation on RGCC’s website, the accuracy of diagnosing breast cancer via liquid biopsy is roughly 87% which is about in line with the subjective accuracy of pathology following a surgical biopsy.

In summary, the RGCC website says this about the ability of their technology; it can:

1. detect early signs of a developing cancer,
2. help to monitor existing cancers,
3. produce an individual profile of which cancer drugs and which natural substances can be used to achieve the best treatment outcomes.

I’ve heard nothing but good reports about this company so I wanted to pass the information along. It might be worth looking into; I’m glad I did:))

Blog at you soon, thanks for reading and helping to spread the word!  (Please see the “share” links below.)  And we’d love to hear comments from you! (see below as well)

Stay healthy,

Megan

Megan Smith, M.S.
Director, bOObs: The War on Women’s Breasts

waymarkproductions.com