Promising new test could help identify breast cancer

A new blood test could improve how doctors monitor treatment in breast cancer patients. Personalis, a California-based genomics company, says its new test can detect tiny amounts of tumor DNA circulating in blood, helping identify patients at a high risk of occurrence. The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, note that the test performs better than current standard approaches. “These insights allow us to more precisely risk-stratify breast cancer patients in future trials and clinical practice,” says Ben Park, MD, PhD, Director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, adding that the test “allows for a higher cancer detection rate.”