Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Newswise — By collecting samples from the portal vein—which carries blood from the gastrointestinal tract, including from the pancreas, to the liver—physicians can learn far more about a patient’s pancreatic cancer than by relying on peripheral blood from a more easily accessed vein in the arm.
Primary tumors shed cancerous cells, known as circulating tumor cells (CTCs), into the blood. These have been widely studied as prognostic biomarkers for various cancers. Because these cells are often larger, irregularly shaped and tend to cluster together, they get trapped in smaller vessels.
The authors hypothesized that most cells released from a gastrointestinal tumor would flow into the portal vein and then get sequestered by the narrow vessels in the liver. These cells would not reach the peripheral venous system. CTCs from gastrointestinal tumors are rarely identified in the peripheral blood until the cancer is widely metastatic.
http://www.newswise.com/articles/new-test-may-improve-diagnosis-and-treatment-of-pancreatic-cancers
Primary tumors shed cancerous cells, known as circulating tumor cells (CTCs), into the blood. These have been widely studied as prognostic biomarkers for various cancers. Because these cells are often larger, irregularly shaped and tend to cluster together, they get trapped in smaller vessels.
The authors hypothesized that most cells released from a gastrointestinal tumor would flow into the portal vein and then get sequestered by the narrow vessels in the liver. These cells would not reach the peripheral venous system. CTCs from gastrointestinal tumors are rarely identified in the peripheral blood until the cancer is widely metastatic.
http://www.newswise.com/articles/new-test-may-improve-diagnosis-and-treatment-of-pancreatic-cancers
