[author: Pamela Koenig]
A promising new technology may make the diagnosis of cancer and genetic mutation testing as easy as performing a urinalysis as part of an annual physical exam. Cancer could be detected at its earliest stages, when treatment responses would be more favorable and better outcomes more likely.
Scientists at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of the City of Hope, one of the nation’s elite cancer hospitals in California, have discovered a way to pinpoint early stage cancer by analyzing short strands of small pieces of DNA known as cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in urine. Previously, researchers had believed that DNA fragments in urine were highly degraded and were too short to provide much useful information about cancer. However, the team of researchers, led by Dr. Muhammed Murtaza from TGen and City of Hope, along with other colleagues from Baylor University and Phoenix Children's Hospital, found that the DNA fragments in urine were not random at all and could clearly indicate a difference between healthy individuals and those with cancer.