Recently, there has been a lot of talk about molecular diagnostics in the context of cancer. What are the most important needs in this area when it comes to lung cancer patients? We ask Aleksandra Wilk, director of the Lung Cancer Section of the TO SIĘ LECZY Foundation, about this.
How to increase access to modern molecular diagnostics?
Published May 17, 2023 09:00
Aleksandra Wilk:
- Medicine is advancing, newer therapies are being developed for patients with lung cancer and other cancers.
- I'm referring to comprehensive genomic diagnostics, multi-scale testing that can detect up to several hundred mutations in these patients, allowing them to benefit from modern drug therapies.
- Modern diagnostics starts with collecting good quality material, then sending it to a certified center that has the right equipment and people.
- We currently have about 10 such centers in Poland.
- What is important from the patient's point of view is that the material "circulating around the country" degrades, until we reach the point where it becomes impossible to perform a test crucial to the start of treatment. Here another innovation comes to our aid - liquid biopsy. Easy to perform because it involves drawing blood.
