Non-Invasive Cancer Diagnostics, Alternatives to Cost-Intensive & Painful Tissue Biopsies

by Roots Analysis Roots Analysis provides market research and consul

Cancer is known to be one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In 2019, 0.6 million deaths due to cancer are estimated in the US alone. Moreover, the World Health Organization has estimated the number of new cancer cases to rise by 70% over the next 20 years. One of the primary reasons for the high mortality associated with this condition is believed to be late diagnosis. This results in delayed treatment, which severely compromises chances of survival. For many years, tissue biopsy has been considered the gold standard for cancer diagnosis. However, owing to the invasive nature of the test, biopsies cannot be repeated frequently to assess / measure disease progression or monitor therapeutic outcome. In fact, in some cases, it is not possible to carry out a biopsy because the affected tissue / organ is not amenable to undergo such a painful and traumatic procedure. This has resulted in a significant unmet need for safer and more patient friendly cancer diagnostics that are capable of offering accurate test results.

Advances in the field of biotechnology have enabled the establishment of several minimally invasive / non-invasive approaches for disease diagnosis. Amongst other promising diagnostic tools, liquid biopsy has emerged as a versatile and promising non-invasive cancer diagnostic tool. This procedure is based on the analysis of biofluids (such as blood, urine and / or plasma) in order to detect rare forms of biomarkers / tumor markers, such as circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA / RNA (ctNAs), circulating free DNA (cfDNA) and exosomes. Moreover, liquid biopsies have been demonstrated to be capable of assessing the stage of tumor at the time of sample extraction. Additionally, owing to the non-invasive nature of the test, it can be actively used to monitor / track changes in tumors, both before and during the course of treatment. Other than liquid biopsy, the cancer diagnostics market has witnessed the emergence of several other non-invasive diagnostic technologies, which are based on analytes that are either superficially located (such as skin lesions) and / or are expelled from the body (such as bronchial fluids and exhaled breath). Most of the non-invasive diagnostic techniques mentioned above are backed by clinical data, validating their relevance and applicability across several types of solid tumors (such as breast cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer) and hematological malignancies (such as leukemia and lymphoma). In future, non-invasive cancer diagnosis methods, particularly liquid biopsies, are anticipated to replace the existing invasive diagnostic techniques.

Cancer is an extremely progressive disease. It is important that the disease is diagnosed at an early stage to combat it with the available treatment modalities. There are a number of parameters that lead to late detection of cancer.These include:

§ Absence of symptoms

§ Socioeconomic status

§ Lack of awareness and knowledge of the signs and symptoms of cancer

§ Delay in visiting the doctor for routine check-up of the body

§ Fear of visiting a clinic on occurrence of symptoms

However, it is important that such delays are avoided in order to improve the chances of survival.