Researchers have developed a blood test that can diagnose at least eight different types of cancers.
The single blood test which is known as CancerSEEK detects tumors in up to 98% of patients before they develop symptoms.
It picks up on DNA shed by mutating cells into the blood. It could also detect tumours early and boost survival .
The researchers, in their findings published in the journal Science said even though the test’s accuracy varies according to the type of cancer, it averages at around 70 percent, which is better than any available early-diagnosis method.
“This test represents the next step in changing the focus of cancer research from late-stage disease to early disease, which I believe will be critical to reducing cancer deaths in the long term,” said the Study author Professor Bert Vogelstein from John Hopkins University.
The researchers analyzed blood samples from 1,005 cancer patients suffering from early-stage ovarian, liver, stomach, pancreatic, esophageal, colorectum, lung or breast forms of the disease. None of the participants’ cancers appeared to have spread. Results reveal CancerSEEK accurately detects more than 90 percent of ovarian and liver cancers.
It also reliably picks up on ovarian, stomach, pancreatic and esophageal cancers in at least 69 percent of cases. These forms of the disease are typically difficult to detect.
CancerSEEK only wrongly detects tumors in healthy people less than one percent of the time.
Professor Vogelstein said: “This test represents the next step in changing the focus of cancer research from late-stage disease to early disease, which I believe will be critical to reducing cancer deaths in the long term.”
