TRAK-ER trial: could a blood test detect breast cancer relapse before it even happens?

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust (London, UK) recently began the TRAK-ER trial, a pioneering study that aims to identify relapse in breast cancer patients through the use of a simple blood test. As there is no effective method of establishing relapse risk in these patients, this test would be the first of its kind. Currently, breast cancer relapse is discovered by a scan when it has fully returned. The blood test being trialed in TRAK-ER aims to detect a molecular relapse, that occurs long before the cancer is detectable by more traditional methods. A molecular relapse is defined by...