Abstract

SCREENING OF EARLY STAGE CANCER THROUGH BLOOD ANALYSIS – A REVIEW

Femilarani J., Praveen S., Shalini P., Devi Sowndariya N., Sundaraganapathy R.

ABSTRACT

Cancer is the largest cause of death worldwide, with 10 million deaths projected in 2020. Cancer is only diagnosed after it has spread to other parts of the body. It is possible to cure cancer cells if they are detected at an early stage. Unfortunately, many tumors are not detected until they become severe. Annually, almost 8.2 million people die from cancer as a result of ineffective monitoring and diagnosis. However, there are currently no recognized diagnostic approaches that do not harm patient’s physical health during the cancer testing phase. Cells multiply too quickly in malignant conditions. A fraction of the cells will always die and shed genetic material into the bloodstream, interacting with greater amounts of DNA fragments from regular cell death. Cancer-causing mutations in DNA fragments can be found freely floating in the blood of cancer patients. cfDNA is the name given to these segments. Cancer patients have higher cfDNA levels than healthy people. cfDNA is comprised of fragmented DNA which cells release into the bloodstream, usually as a result of cell death. cfDNA found in healthy patients' plasma is usually made of germaline DNA released by normal cells. In cancer patients, some of the maximum cfDNA is made up of DNA released by tumor cells, which are referred to as circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). Thus, in this article we are focusing on the methods used for screening of early stage cancer through blood analysis. This method is easy to diagnose cancer without causing harm to the patient's physical health.

Keywords: Cell free DNA (cfDNA), Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), germline DNA, Blood analysis, Early screening method.