Doctors are excited at early results of test that could mean widespread early screening, detection and treatment of 10 cancers, significantly impacting survival rates, and slashing health costs.
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Imagine if some day cancer could be detected early by the simple means of a blood test.
Doctors in Cleveland and from Stanford in America are getting excited about a new technique called a blood diopsy that they say can detect 10 different types of cancer before the disease becomes too entrenched to cure easily, or at all.
It opens the possiblity of screening to nip cancer in the bud before any symptoms manifest themselves.
Blood diopsies were particularly effective at finding ovarian, pancreatic, liver and gallbladder cancers, but also found lymphoma and myeloma, bowel and lung cancer and head and neck cancer.
The test screens for cancer by detecting tiny fragments of DNA released by cancer cells into the blood.
Doctors say it opens the possibility of treatment for cancers that are often hard or impossible to cure because they cannot be detected early enough , saving more lives, and slashing medical costs.
The researchers stress further clinical development is needed.