Publications by authors named "Alex Calanca"
Precision medicine in oncology requires an accurate characterization of a tumor molecular profile for patient stratification. Though targeted deep sequencing is an effective tool to detect the presence of somatic sequence variants, a significant number of patient specimens do not meet the requirements needed for routine clinical application. Analysis is hindered by contamination of normal cells and inherent tumor heterogeneity, compounded with challenges of dealing with minute amounts of tissue and DNA damages common in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Scientists are studying how to use special blood cells called circulating tumor cells (CTCs) to help make better treatment decisions for breast cancer patients.
- They created a new method to isolate and analyze these CTCs, focusing on their genetic information to understand differences between the cancer in blood and the original tumor.
- Their research found that some CTCs can be resistant to treatments, and learning about these differences could help doctors personalize cancer treatments for patients.