When Luana Locke was pregnant with her first child, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her diagnosis coupled with her family history led to genetic testing that revealed a rare hereditary condition called Li-Fraumeni syndrome, which comes with an almost 100% chance of developing cancer again in her lifetime.“When it comes to cancer, every day matters, every week matters; the sooner you get into treatment, the greater the likelihood of long-term recovery.”
– Luana Locke
Since then, Luana, now 52, has been diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma, lung cancer, thyroid cancer, and skin cancer. Thanks to breakthroughs in early detection, they were all discovered in their earliest stages when treatments were more effective. Currently, she is living cancer-free.
One of the tests that made her early diagnoses possible was a liquid biopsy, which is a simple blood test that indicates the presence of cancer even before symptoms appear.
“The MRIs and ultrasounds are amazing tools, but they also take time and resources,” says Luana. “You’d never think something as simple as a blood draw could give you results that could potentially be lifesaving.”
Luana is grateful for this new test that also helps protect her two children, who also have Li-Fraumeni syndrome.
“It’s like a Catch-22,” says Luana, “You have this syndrome that makes it extremely likely you’ll develop one, and very likely more than one, cancer.” But with this blood biopsy, “you have the power to do something about it.”
Beyond helping those with Li–Fraumeni syndrome and others with hereditary cancer disorders like Luana and her family, cell-free DNA sequencing has the potential to one day be used to detect cancer earlier in the general population, says Dr. Raymond Kim, Medical Director of Cancer Early Detection at The Princess Margaret’s Bhalwani Familial Cancer Clinic.
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