Dr. Daniel Haber says, "For the first time we can sample tumor cells directly from the blood of patients, and in real time, we can count them, analyze them, and see how a patient's tumor cell is responding to a drug"

Doctors have developed a new device to measure cancer cells that break off from lung tumors and travel through the blood. It can also determine when the cancer cells become resistant to drug treatments. The technology was developed at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.  A clinical trial using the device was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. VOA's Deborah Block has more.