What if doctors could more accurately diagnose and monitor blood cancer with a simple blood draw? This vision is becoming a reality thanks to research at Rapid Novor, a Waterloo-based company co-founded by Dr. Bin Ma, a computer science professor at the University of Waterloo.
Myeloma is a type of blood cancer that grows in the bone marrow. Typically, patients must undergo multiple bone marrow biopsies to diagnose the disease and to assess the treatment. However, this procedure is painful and invasive.
“Basically, the doctor has to insert a thick needle into the bone to extract marrow,” Professor Ma says. “Then they test it to see if there are any cancer cells inside of it. Even after treatment, this procedure needs to be repeated once or twice a year to detect possible relapse.”