MAINTRAC CIRCULATING TUMOUR CELL BLOG
The world's first CTC blog for practitioners and their patients
One cannot write about evolution without referencing Darwin and his evolutionary theory. It's astounding how relevant this over 150-year idea is. Let's first tease out the theory, so that we are all on the same page.
Darwin described how species evolved via descent with modification. This means that...
Chemotherapy is a mainstay of tumour therapy. The current treatment guidelines for prescribing a treatment rests heavily on how a treatment or treatment combination has fared statistically, in terms of rates of cancer comeback and survival without cancer spread. The protocol does not include testing the efficacy of the drug against the unique nature of a person's tumour.
Each person's cancer is unique...
What is DNA? What is a gene? What is a mutation?
In brief, DNA is a long molecule that stores information. DNA is located in the centre (nucleus) of every cell and contains all the instructions necessary for the organism to function. Similar to pearls on a necklace, along the DNA strand there are millions of basic structural units called nucleotides. Each nucleotide (pearl) is one of four types: A, T, G or C, as determined by the nitrogenous base they contain, i.e., nucleotide 'A' has Adenine, 'T' has Tyrosine, 'C' has Cysteine and 'G' has Guanine. These four types of...
The new classification of processed meat as carcinogen to humans Group 1 by the World Health Organisation
This week, bacon was in the news. It has been grouped in carcinogen to humans Group 1, together with tobacco smoking asbestos. People do love bacon. My daughter used to work in a cafe, and she tells me that the customers would go to great lengths to describe the exact way they would like their bacon cooked. But she's a scientist now, and has looked into this new classification for us. I hope that the following paragraphs help to explain the science and research behind the new classification, and what it might mean for the bacon lovers among us.
A biomarker is a short way of saying 'biological marker.' By definition, biomarkers are biological indicators of the existence of either a physiological (normal) or pathogenic (disease) process, or pharmacological response. Biomarkers include things like cells and proteins, and/or specific sequences of DNA, mRNA transcripts, non-coding RNAs.
From the time malignant tumours have reached a size of two milimetres, they release thousands of malignant cells into the circulation. Most of these cells die or get kiled off. The more aggressive ones survive and remain in the bloodstream as 'Circulating Tumour Cells,' abbreviated as CTCs. These cells have the potential to...
Welcome to the Circulating Tumour Cell (CTC) Blog: A blog committed to making current developments in CTC science accessible to both patients and their practitioners. For patients, this blog will translate complex, technical information into street-speak, so that patients might keep themselves well informed of current developments. For practitioners, this blog will provide links to notable publications both in pure and translational science.
