Cellular "barcode" technique suggests better treatment for breast cancer – Xinhua

SYDNEY, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) – Advanced technology has been used to detect cells responsible for the spread of bad cancer in the blood and other organs, indicating new targeted treatments for the most common cancer in women, according to the latest Australian research.

The technique, called a cellular bar code, marks, locates and spots cancer cells, while showing how chemotherapy temporarily reduces the number of harmful cells, rather than eliminating them, explaining how cancer could possibly relapse, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research said about his study in a statement Friday evening.

According to the institute, most deaths due to bad cancer are due to metastasis or the spread of cancer cells from the primary tumor to other organs.

Cancer consists of thousands of cell variants with diverse characteristics that may or may not play a role in metastasis. This makes the treatment effective a challenge because it is difficult to know which cells are responsible for the spread of the main disease, said the institute.

The ability to identify "clones" – subpopulations of cells originating from an original tumor of the patient – responsible for the spread of cancer was crucial for improving treatments, said Dr. Delphine Merino of the institute.

"Our study revealed that only a few selected clones were actually responsible for the metastasis," said Merino.

"The bar coding technique allowed us to identify clones able to enter the bloodstream and enter other organs where they would" seed "the new tumor growth.

The technique also allowed researchers to see what happens to clones after the introduction of chemotherapy, said institute professor Jane Visvader.

"These exciting discoveries would not have been possible without the ability to meticulously apply barcodes, track thousands of individual clones, and monitor their behavior over time," she said. . The latest discoveries have been published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

The precision of the approach could pave the way for the discovery of important mysteries in the field of bad cancer research and give scientists the information needed to design highly targeted treatment strategies for the prevalent disease, a said Visvader.