When a patient is diagnosed with breast cancer, getting an accurate diagnosis quickly is vital. Doctors often rely on tissue biopsies to confirm the disease. However, new research into circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and tumor DNA (ctDNA) suggests that blood tests could serve as a powerful extra tool for doctors to identify cancer in the blood.
A review of data from over 4,700 patients compared three different ways of testing these DNA fragments. Quantitative assays showed high sensitivity and specificity, making them a strong candidate for helping doctors decide which patients need urgent care. Integrity assays also performed well with high accuracy scores. Methylation assays showed more moderate results but still maintained high specificity.
While these blood tests show great promise as an extra tool to help manage patient triage, the evidence is not yet perfect. Because many of the studies used were small or inconsistent, the overall certainty of the data is currently low. It is important to note that these blood tests are intended to work alongside traditional methods, not replace tissue biopsies.
