Genetics is the basis for all living things. It is the foundation and building blocks that
\nproduce an organism. The genetics of a person can tell scientists about how they function,
\ntheir likelihood of developing a disease and how the individual could respond to different
\ndrugs. Whole genome sequencing and genetic analysis is being used more in healthcare
\nevery day in diagnosis and treatment, ultimately increasing the chance of a better outcome
\nfor patients.<\/p>\n
Every 2 minutes someone is diagnosed with cancer in the UK. Although advances in
\nmedicine have increased cancer survival rates over the last 20 years, the UK is falling behind
\ncompared to other countries, such as Norway and Australia. To improve survival rates, the
\ncancer needs to be detected earlier so that surgery, chemoradiation therapy or simpler
\nmethods can cure it. A new method for cancer detection is to test circulating tumour DNA
\n(ctDNA), which is fragments of DNA released from a tumour that circulate in the blood.
\nTesting for ctDNA can provide genetic information about the cancer and the patient\u2019s
\ntreatment can be specifically designed to work for their tumour. AstraZeneca is currently
\nresearching how to optimize this approach and if it could be used to detect if patients will
\nrelapse early. For example, ctDNA was used to diagnose specific mutations within the
\nepidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in patients that have non-small cell lung cancer,
\nallowing effective treatments to be prescribed, such as Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs). The
\ntype of genetic testing on offer prior to this new approach was a biopsy, an invasive
\nprocedure, and fails 30% of the time. The simple blood test is more accessible and very
\neasy. The use of ctDNA is a personalised healthcare method that will increase survival rates,
\nproving that the use of genetics within healthcare will revolutionise drug development and
\ngive more patients a better chance. Unfortunately, this revolutionary diagnostic testing is
\nnot used throughout the NHS and some patients still miss out. Lung cancer is the second
\nmost common cancer in the UK and analysis of ctDNA will improve the amounts of lung
\ncancer survivors. Hopefully, this genetic testing will be used across the NHS soon and the
\nUK\u2019s cancer survival rates will overtake other countries.<\/p>\n
Personalised healthcare is an approach that will specifically target therapies to patients to
\nenable better treatment of a disease. The concept takes into account the factors that make
\nindividuals different which include their lifestyle, diet, environment and genetic profile.
\nAnother example is using whole genome sequencing to detect a risk of developing a disease
\nand could also aid researchers to tailor a therapeutic that will definitely work for that
\npatient. Knowing the genetics of the patient may mean that a simple dietary change could
\nhelp the disease and decrease the amount of medication that the patient takes, leading to
\neasier and cheaper treatment for the NHS.<\/p>\n
This short post clearly demonstrates that more types of genetic testing should be developed
\nfor other types of cancers and diseases to improve the healthcare of the UK patients.<\/p>\n
Written By: Lauryn Buckley-Benbow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Genetics is the basis for all living things. It is the foundation and building blocks that produce an organism. The genetics of a person can tell scientists about how they function, their likelihood of developing a disease and how the individual could respond to different drugs. Whole genome sequencing and genetic analysis is being used Read more about A brief introduction to understanding genetic testing and its benefits for the NHS – Lauryn Buckley-Benbow<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1191,"featured_media":427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[83],"tags":[81,115,165,167,168,166],"class_list":["post-424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting-research","tag-biology","tag-cancer","tag-cancer-research","tag-genetic-research","tag-genetic-testing","tag-genetics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/files\/2019\/09\/ctDNA-Detection-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C809&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9dFBD-6Q","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":425,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions\/425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/bls-student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}