Articles Tagged ‘test’

The Role of Fecal Occult Blood Testing in Colorectal Cancer Screening

Credit: NCI

Each year nearly 150,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with colorectal cancer and around 50,000 die from the disease. Studies have shown that when performed every one to two years in people ages 50 to 80, fecal occult blood tests (FOBT) can help reduce the number of deaths from colorectal cancer by 15 to [...]

Genetic Testing for Cancer: Pros and Cons

Illustration of Hyper- and Hypomethylation

It can be difficult enough to hear a doctor tell you that you have been diagnosed with cancer, but how would someone react if a doctor told them that while they might be healthy now, they are likely to have cancer in the future?

Cancer Genetics in the 21st Century

Illustration of Hyper- and Hypomethylation

The past decade has brought tremendous advances in genetics and molecular biology. In a short time, we have gone from sequencing the genome of a bacterium to sequencing the genome of a human. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) has enabled researchers to take a minute sample of DNA and amplify it a million-fold, and DNA evidence has become the new “fingerprints” of forensic investigations. More recently, gene microchips have made it possible to look at the activity of thousands of genes simultaneously.