Cancer එකක් තියනවද කියල දැනගන්නෙ කොහොමද? ඒකට කරන්න ඕන test මොනවද? ඒ test අපිට doctor කෙනෙක්ට කියන් නැතුව කරන්න පුලුවන්ද?
Copied from a post done in May 2023....
NOTE: This is the answer for the question "Is there a test for cancer?"
Short answer - Yes & No.
Yes there are - Certain blood tests give clues or markers to cancer. Take for example the PSA test - this screens for Prostate Cancer. Also there's the CA-125 test for Ovarian Cancer. CarcinoEmbryonic Antigen (CEA) for colon cancer and Alpha-Fetoprotein for testicular cancer.
Only 5 types of cancers have a recommended screening test — breast, colorectal, lung, cervical, and prostate.
However... Since the latter part of 2021 there are blood tests that
can detect more than 50 types of cancer from a single blood sample. How this is done is by detecting the
trace amounts of tumour DNA in the bloodstream. It's like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack, but the present day technology has enabled this to be done.
Simple blood tests have now come a long way...
These traces of cancer DNA carries a “
molecular barcode” embedded that
identifies the tissue it came from. These barcodes are a result of DNA methylation, naturally existing modifications to the surface of DNA that vary for each type of tissue in the body. Thus a lung tissue has a
different DNA methylation pattern than breast tissue.
Additionally, the cancer cells
have abnormal DNA methylation patterns that correlate with cancer type. This enables these tests to focus on the sections of DNA that distinguish between
cancerous and normal tissue and exactly pinpoint the cancer’s origin site.
PS: These tests are expensive, around $1000 per test. Hopefully one day, once the research costs are covered and lab equipment costs go down could be available. Even certain advanced cancer cell biopsy tests are not available in SL yet. Even years after its use - these still can cost over $500.
PPS: This is the background that paved the way for these tests...