Businesses are wagering a liquid biopsy can alter cancer testing. If you believed that next-gen blood- had hit against a wall due to the woes of her hobbled unicorn Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, you’d be incorrect. An increasing variety of pharmaceutical and biotech companies are ramping up efforts to create smarter, more powerful blood diagnostics. Pharma giant Roche nabbed FDA acceptance -of-its-type blood test to evaluate the effectiveness of its lung cancer drug, Tarceva.
These are just a couple of the most recent developments in the burgeoning area of medicine that is personalized and liquid biopsies blood tests that seek to replace distressing, expensive, and complex processes like the invasive tissue biopsies that now control the cancer marketplace. Guardant, because of its part, expects that its stage may be used within an annual physical to detect cancer. The Theranos debacle however, if this new type of blood-testing technology takes off just how investors believe it might, evaluations that are more economical, safer could replace old school surgical biopsies completely.