New blood test can check for at least 50 types of cancer before symptoms of disease
New research from the UK and US, including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DF) and University College London, has found a simple blood test can screen for more than 50 types of cancer. The test looks for telltale chemical changes to cell-free DNA that leak from tumours into the bloodstream, with mostly (96%) accurate diagnoses. The blood test could help with early tumour diagnosis, but it must first go through stringent checks to ensure it does not miss cases and provide false assurance to patients.
After testing more than 4,000 samples from patients, some with and some without cancer, DF’s Professor Geoff Oxnard said the blood test “seems to have all the features needed to be used on a population scale, as a multi-cancer screening test.” The test has just been launched for limited use on clinical trials – the research team awaits the results to more fully understand the test performance.
Similarly, Cancer Research UK’s Dr. David Crosby thinks tech innovations that can detect cancers at their earliest stages, when they are less aggressive and more treatable, has great potential to save lives: “If the test can be fine-tuned to be more efficient at catching cancers early on, it could become a tool for early detection.”
“Although this test is still at an early stage of development, the initial results are encouraging,” Dr. Crosby added.
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