Detecting tumor markers easily

Blood is just teeming with proteins. It’s not easy there to identify specialized tumor markers indicating the presence of cancer. A new method now enables diagnostics to be carried out in a single step. Scientists will present the analysis equipment at analytica, the international trade fair in Munich.

Benign growth, or cancer? Tumor markers in the blood help determine whether the patient is afflicted with a malign tumor and whether it is excreting markers more vigorously – involving highly specific proteins. An increased concentration in the blood provides one indication of the disease for physicians. However, it has been quite expensive in time and effort to detect the markers thus far. This is because all kinds of molecules and proteins are teeming in the blood. To be able to detect a single specific one, doctors must first separate and purify the blood in several steps, and then isolate the marker they are searching for from the rest of the molecules.


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Detecting tumor markers easily

Source: Fraunhofer

Image credits: Fraunhofer IPA