A Revolutionary Tool toMonitor Cancer

Guest: Ryan Kelly, Professor of Chemistry, Brigham Young University When doctors want to know how a cancerous tumor is responding to treatment, they usually have to take a sample of tissue straight from the growth. Doing a biopsy is painful and risky. But to know if the cancer is shrinking or spreading, doctors need a pretty large sample of cells. BYU chemistry professor Ryan Kelly and his former colleagues at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a technique for getting even better information out of a blood sample, rather than a biopsy.