Biomedical Laboratory Science

Monday, May 30, 2016

Rising Liquid Biopsy Tide Lifts Cancer Dx

Traditional Tissue Biopsies Are Not Providing the Type of Real-Time Monitoring Necessary for Effectively Catching Relapse

As molecular diagnostics for oncology shifts into clinical practice, efforts have not only focused on genotyping patient-specific tumors to initiate targeted therapies, but on early detection, availability, improved quality control, and refined workflow.

One major push, that exemplifies the concomitance of these trends, has been the rise of the less-invasive and more cost-effective liquid sampling for cancer diagnosis; sometimes called a liquid biopsy.

The FDA recently approved Hologic’s prostate cancer test, which improves upon the less sensitive
and less specific standard PSA tests via examination of the PCA3 gene in urine.

Source: genengnews

Friday, April 29, 2016

The Brain-to-Brain Loop in Molecular Oncology Laboratory Testing

Various Methods Allow Clinical Laboratories to Maximize Their Efficiency and Usefulness

The delineation of a brain-to-brain loop in clinical laboratory testing first published in 1981 has never been more pertinent. Its subsequent development and current application in clinical molecular oncology in 2016 can make all the difference.

This discussion focuses on the factors that drive the ordering of a lab test and the many components thereof, itemizes pre- and post-analytic causes of diagnostic error, and recommends how a laboratory can help ensure the usefulness of the entire process.

Just as a chain is no stronger than its weakest link, a loop that isn’t closed is (obviously) still open.

Technical and laboratory workers tend naturally to define their work by their technical products and procedures, as well they should. In clinical laboratory testing, that tends to be the step called “analysis.”

The success or failure of an “analysis” may well depend upon the pre- and post-analytic phases at least as much as the analysis itself.