In recent years, with the continuous development of tumor diagnosis and treatment technology, the treatment of tumors is no longer limited to surgical resection, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and new therapies such as targeted therapy and immunotherapy have also begun to shine in the field of tumor treatment.
In conjunction with these new treatments, after some tumor patients undergo surgical treatment or biopsy testing, doctors will also recommend genetic testing of tumors for the determination of subsequent treatment plans.
So what is genetic testing?
What role does genetic testing play in tumor treatment?
First of all, explain what genetic testing is?
Genes are the basic units of heredity, commonly referred to as DNA or RNA sequences, which contain the basis for the various traits that encode the human body (such as skin color, height, face shape).
Genetic testing is a method of detecting the DNA sequence in the human blood, other body fluids, tissue cells and other samples, analyzing the gene type and gene defects it contains and whether its expression function is normal, so that people can understand their own genetic information, clarify the cause or predict the risk of a certain disease in the body.
At present, genetic testing is mainly used in the detection of genetic diseases in newborns, the diagnosis of genetic diseases and the auxiliary diagnosis of some common diseases.
So what is the role of genetic testing technology in tumor prevention and treatment?
Its application mainly has the following aspects:
1
Preventive effect
Preventive screening is usually performed during a physical examination, and it is possible to detect whether it carries certain susceptible gene mutations associated with tumorigenesis by performing genomic testing on a sample of its own blood and sequencing it for known tumor susceptibility genes.
For example, the well-known movie star Angelina · Julie is through this type of examination, found that she carries a mutation in the susceptibility gene BRCA1 to breast cancer and ovarian cancer, and there have been many women in the family who have breast cancer or ovarian cancer, so Julie removed the breast and ovaries in advance without tumors to prevent the occurrence of such cancer.
Genetic testing in patients who already have tumors can also play a role in suggesting whether their offspring may inherit tumor susceptibility genes, which also has the effect of preventing tumorigenesis.
2
Diagnostic effect
At present, the diagnosis of tumors mainly relies on pathological diagnosis, marker detection and other methods, and sometimes for tumors with high malignancy and low degree of differentiation, the source of which may not be clearly diagnosed by the above means.
At this time, genetic testing of its mutation type can help doctors make a diagnosis from the other hand, and follow-up targeted therapy can also be carried out.
3
Therapeutic effect
The role of genetic testing in tumor therapy mainly contributes to the selection of targeted drugs.
At present, a large number of studies have shown that tumorigenesis and development are closely related to mutations in the DNA sequence of the cells themselves, so scientists have found many genetic mutation sites that are closely related to tumorigenesis.
Genetic testing of tumor tissue can reveal whether there is a mutation in such genes, allowing better treatment with targeted drugs that target such mutations.
On the other hand, even for patients with different pathological diagnoses of the same tumor type, there may be great differences between individuals at the level of genetic mutations, so targeted individualized treatment protocols are needed.
For example, for non-small cell lung cancer (as shown above), some patients have mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and for the specific type of EGFR mutation they have, patients can choose different targeted drugs (gefitinib, afatinib, osiminib, etc.) for treatment. In some patients, there may be mutations in other genes such as the ALK gene, and clematinib can be selected for treatment.
Therefore, genetic testing technology can help doctors better develop individualized treatment plans for patients, achieve the purpose of precise and personalized treatment of tumors, and minimize the emergence of drug resistance. At present, there are many tumor-targeted drugs in the world, such as the following:
In short, genetic testing technology is an important auxiliary means in the process of tumor prevention, diagnosis and treatment, and with the continuous efforts of researchers and pharmaceutical companies to study the pathogenesis of various tumors, corresponding drugs will gradually be developed.
Clinicians can use genetic testing technology to tailor the most suitable precision treatment plan for each patient, which can better prolong the survival of patients and improve the hope of cure.