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Pilot study details new method to diagnose brain cancer without surgery

By Carolyn Y. Johnson

 |  Globe Staff  

  April 18, 2012

A team led by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have devised a new, less-invasive way to potentially diagnose brain cancer and monitor the course of the disease, without surgery. The pilot study, published in the journal Neuro-Oncology, still needs to be tested more rigorously before it is used in patients. It involves looking for signatures of brain cancer -- tell-tale molecules that circulate in cerebrospinal fluid.

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