Abstract

Katrin Heider (Medical Sciences) will speak about her research: Did you know… If you were born after 1960, you have a 50% chance of being diagnosed with cancer during your lifetime!

However, with the improvements in treatment, many patients are now able to live for many years after their cancer diagnosis. Unfortunately, this is mostly true for the cases where the cancer was diagnosed at an early stage and patients are monitored closely for the rest of their lives.

Therefore, a major goal in battling cancer is to improve the detection and monitoring of cancer to ensure that more patients can live longer after diagnosis. My lab chose liquid biomarkers to meet this need. Using bodily fluids like blood, urine, and saliva we are developing and improving techniques to successfully detect and monitor cancer.