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Increasingly sensitive tests have raised the risk overdiagnosis. Understanding a person’s chance of disease could reduce the harmful side effects of screening.
The analysis of tumours using biomarkers in blood is beginning to transform cancer diagnosis, says Catherine Alix-Panabières. The challenge now is to make liquid biopsy a standard clinical tool.
Scientists know that the microbiome has an effect on pharmaceuticals, and vice versa, but they are still trying to work out the various mechanisms involved.