S5.12 In the blood: using circulating DNA to detect and monitor cancer

We’re taking a closer look at the red stuff, finding out what a few millilitres of blood can reveal about the development, progression and treatment of cancer within the body. Rather than painful surgical biopsies, expensive scans or complicated screening tests, what if we could simply take a small tube of blood and discover a wealth of information, such as whether or not you have cancer in your body, where it started, how to treat it, and whether that treatment is actually working? Presenter Dr Kat Arney finds out what circulating tumour DNA is from Dr Susan Galbraith, how it can be used to monitor the progression of a cancer from Professor Charles Swanton, and what this will mean for future cancer patients from Sir Harpal Kumar.

Full show notes, transcript, music credits and references online at GeneticsUnzipped.com 

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This episode of Genetics Unzipped was written and presented by Kat Arney with audio production by Sally Le Page.

This podcast is produced by First Create the Media for the Genetics Society - one of the oldest learned societies in the world dedicated to supporting and promoting the research, teaching and application of genetics.