MMD PCR for lung cancer driver mutations

个性化医学旨在提前预测哪些患者最有可能从一种特定的治疗中受益，或者对这种治疗没有很好的反应。然而，目前的方法在灵敏度和成本方面都有很大的局限性。肿瘤活组织检查，尤其是肺癌的活组织检查，通常只提供少量的材料。此外，突变可能会随着时间的推移而变化，因此在治疗期间需要定期重复检测，但对于某些肿瘤类型来说，重复活检是非常不可取的。最近发现，如果方法足够灵敏，肿瘤的DNA会泄漏到血液中，并可以被检测到。GeneFirst正在开发一种基于实时聚合酶链式反应的新技术，用于检测单个封闭管中的多个明确突变，大大提高了灵敏度。这可能适合于使用血液中循环中的无细胞DNA来检测突变。

Personalised medicine aims to predict in advance which patients are most likely to benefit from, or not respond well to, a particular therapy. However, current methods have significant limitations in terms of both sensitivity and cost. Tumour biopsies, particularly from lung cancers, often provide only a tiny amount of material. Furthermore there may be change in mutations with time, and therefore repeated testing is needed at intervals during treatment, but repeated biopsy is highly undesirable for some tumour types. It has recently been discovered that DNA from tumours leaks into blood and can be detected, if the method is sufficiently sensitive. GeneFirst is developing a new real-time PCR based technology for detection of multiple defined mutations in a single closed-tube with greatly increased sensitivity. This is potentially suitable for detecting mutations using circulating cell-free DNA in blood.