Dr Farooq Ghani and Dr Vasudev Sharma at PureLab write about how innovative diagnostics will illuminate the fight against cancer.

Breaking through the shadows

How will innovative diagnostics illuminate our fight against cancer?

For millions of people, cancer casts a long shadow – the knock of its physical impact growing with each day. The figures are more than just statistics; they represent many of our loved ones, friends, and family members. It’s exactly why, in just one year, that is, 2020, it caused 19.3 million new cases of the incurable disease and purportedly touched the ground of 10 million heartbreaking losses.

It’s estimated that by 2040, we are going to be looking down the barrel of 30 million cases.1 Closer to home, the UAE is going to war against breast cancer, forging ahead first in the battle for those below the age of 50, as well as the stealthily growing adversaries of thyroid, colorectal, skin, and blood.

A silver lining: The voyage for prevention

Stats notwithstanding, there is some hope in what has been said here. “Imagine if one-third of the world’s cancer cases could be nipped in the bud – not figuratively in the land of pipe dreams but because of bold prevention strategies that can play out in lifestyle changes and early genetic testing for those at risk, along with vaccination?”

Hence, the UAE has set an ambitious roadmap to slash cancer deaths by 18% by 2025. It all comes down to getting the killer’s weakness at the right time – it’s high time this understanding could cause a change in the way we live and combat cancer.

Since the early detection of cancer is the foremost reason so many lives are saved, research goes on to say that the early detection of lung cancer can pretty much raise survival chances for the disease by a staggering 80% of cases, similarly to breast cancer’s death rates, which have been dropping by 43% since 1989 because of early detection.

Breaking new ground: Diagnostic innovations

However, this is where it gets tricky; those traditional tools of – blood tests, check-ups, biopsies – can turn from well-intentioned gunslingers into feeble, haphazard ones, unable to shoot by the required time.6-10 And this is where our heroes – “Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS)” and “T Cell Receptor (TCR) Gamma Gene Clonality PCR”– come in. These are not just fancily-named acronyms for the sake of it, will indeed be our new secret weapons: NGS, like the Big Brother sort that threads together many genes at once, unraveling all the genetic secrets from any cancer, and TCR testing being that detective who unmasks the hidden cutaneous T-cell lymphomas.

As a result, PureLab, the always-dependable and largest UAE laboratory network, has established “Centers of Excellence for Genetics and Anatomic Pathology” to provide a wide range of molecular tests, including the “NGS” for DNA and RNA sequencing, variant/mutation detection, molecular profiling of various tumours, and more. Further, our facilities provide testing for a broad range of genetic biomarkers, (e.g., BRCA1, BRCA2, HER2, EGFR, KRAS, NRAS, etc.), potentially contributing to cancer prevention, prognosis, and treatment by indicating patients’ eligibility for the available targeted personalized medicines, as well as their participation in clinical trials and research.

The future is now: Revolutionary early detection

The battlefront of identifying cancer has been included in a run of modern tests, empowered by genomics and AI. These dark horse innovations, including the Multi-Cancer Early Detection (MCED) test, can detect different cancers with the startling accuracy we have only dreamed of up to this point. This is no step but a giant leap into the future, whereby a curtain will have been drawn before, never to rise again, with cancer seen no more.

Charting the course: Embracing the challenges ahead

They offer hope – even if they are not without their own problems – by making sure the new tests are as accurate as they’re promised and making them accessible and affordable to everybody. We all ride this journey without being aware of it. With each step we take, we will be closer to facing a world where cancer will no longer be a death sentence but a challenge that we can capably surmount.

A new dawn in cancer care is on the horizon thanks to ongoing change driven by cancer diagnostics, AI-driven tailored cancer treatment programs and personalized biomarker research. It is no longer about fighting cancer but only about winning it, heralding a new way forward where innovation is ammunition and hope is the only guiding star.

Trusting game-changing laboratory initiatives, led by trailblazing organizations such as PureLab, can help turn the tide against cancer. So, as long as we’re working by each other’s sides in this battle, let us all take a moment to remember that behind each test’s innovation, there is a story, a life, and a dream. And with it – every sign of progress – we don’t just save lives or make these families whole; we light the laboratory diagnostics landscape of what’s possible and lay the way towards a future where nothing is impossible to conquer this wretched disease.

Since every moment matters and each life is priceless in the fight against cancer, arming ourselves with the power to prevent and the speed to detect, in addition to the unwavering spirit that comes from the energy of human ingenuity, is crucial to navigating through every turn on this long road and to help us push past every barrier. Working together, we will move a little bit closer to the day when this scourge is finally nothing more than a memory.

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