Collaboration could lead to more precise cancer treatment
The innovative blood test continuously monitors tumor changes, helping clinicians predict treatment outcomes and resistance months in advance, potentially transforming cancer management.
The blood test was built using artificial intelligence (AI) and can inform clinicians whether their patients should undergo immunotherapy. The researchers were able to create a roadmap of “nine distinct cellular neighborhoods, or spatial ecotypes, each representing a unique immune and stromal (the noncancerous cells and structures surrounding the tumor) environment.” The AI can “detect them in blood.” Then, “the researchers created a liquid biopsy test that details the tumor microenvironment beyond its cancer cells.”
The test can be utilized to continuously survey the changes to a patient’s tumor microenvironment, informing clinicians of treatment outcomes and resistance months earlier.
