They are now able to see whether the patient will benefit from chemotherapy or not.

A new Spanish method is useful to determine whether chemotherapy is necessary in cancer cases. In a joint investigation between experts from the Catalan Oncology Institute and the Madrid hospitals, Gregorio Marañón and 12 de Octubre, the scientists have managed to predict breast and lung metastasis.

The method determines whether chemotherapy is necessary or not. They researchers remove the tumour and then use biochips to analyse the genetic information of the breast or lung cancer, that’s about 22,000 genes. Then they implant tissue in laboratory rats and observe the reaction as there is a great resemblance between these illnesses which affect humans.

Using maths and statistical tools the researches can differentiate between malignant tumours and those for which the prognosis is good, and a patient can expect the results in less than a week.

Ramón García Escudero who is responsible for the investigation in the Molecular Oncology Unit in the Centre of Energy, Environmental and Technological Investigations, CIEMAT, has said that the analysis of these genes is ‘simple’, but to implant it in hospitals a final method of diagnosis is needed and that requires scientific validation, and that could take two years.

Source:www.typicallyspanish.com