Moving to the center of gravity: Biomarkers

If it meets sky-high expectations, the blood test that Nadir Arber is developing could change the world of colorectal cancer, for patients of the deadly disease and the doctors who treat them. And it could make the people and institutions involved in this ambitious project very wealthy indeed. Arber, a professor of medicine, runs the Cancer Prevention Unit at Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) in Tel Aviv. His breakthrough is the development of a simple, relatively cheap diagnostic kit costing $50 to $100 for private patients and $30 to $40 when sold in bulk to institutions. The kit does nothing less than provide early diagnosis of colorectal cancer. No less importantly, the test can identify precancerous polyps with the potential of developing into full-blown tumors.

Today diagnosing colorectal cancer depends on a painful and mortifying colonoscopic inspection of the patient's intestinal tract. Whether because of the discomfort or embarrassment, all too many people simply choose to forgo periodic checkups. But, as Arber points out, some 85% of colon-cancer cases are asymptomatic or involve no family history of the disease.
Lire l'intégralité de l'article » (Source: article de Ronny Linder-Ganz @ Haaretz)
Anti Boycott Israel blog: cancer colorectal, diagnostic cancer colorectal, polypes pré-cancéreux