What if our blood could help us detect cancer earlier than ever before? 

In this episode, we’re exploring liquid biopsies, cutting-edge blood tests that can pick up the smallest signs of cancer swirling through the blood. We sit down with Professor Nitzan Rosenfeld, Director of Barts Cancer Institute and a pioneer in the field. 

Professor Rosenfeld explains how fragments of tumour DNA enter our blood from cancer cells, what they can tell us about cancer, and how liquid biopsies can use blood samples to transform early detection, screening and treatment.   

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In this episode, you’ll learn: 

• The ways tiny molecular hints about our health can end up in our blood 
• How circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) in the blood can help us detect and understand tumours in other parts of the body, giving a fuller picture than traditional biopsies and scans 
• The different types of liquid biopsies that can be used to diagnose cancer, guide personalised treatment, check if any traces of cancer remain after therapy (called MRD, or minimal residual disease) and track changes as tumours evolve 
• What the NHS GALLERI trial, which uses a single blood test to screen more than 50 cancer types in people without symptoms, could mean for early cancer detection 
• What our blood might reveal about our future health, and how that might change the way we think

Professor Nitzan Rosenfeld is the Director of Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), which is a key part of the Cancer Research UK City of London Centre. He’s also Professor of Applied Cancer Research at QMUL and the head of a lab that develops liquid biopsies for detecting and monitoring cancer.

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If you enjoyed today’s episode and want to find out more, you can check out our liquid biopsies articles on the Cancer News site: https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/topic/liquid-biopsies/  

We also have an immersive guide to the array of cancer clues that tests can find floating in blood: https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/shorthand_story/what-are-liquid-biopsies/  

You can read more about the NHS-Galleri trial on the NHS website: https://www.nhs-galleri.org/

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