A simple blood test to detect breast cancer
Published: June 15, 2005
A team of scientists has developed a simple blood test, which can detect breast cancer even before the symptoms appear.
According to a study published in the journal of Breast Cancer Research, the invention could make possible timely treatment of the disease by locating it before a tumour has developed, thus averting the need for surgery and reducing the expenses incurred on the treatment.
“The earlier breast cancer is detected, the easier it is to treat, so methods that can catch breast cancer at its earliest stage are to be encouraged,” the Daily Mail quoted Dr. Sarah Rawlings, Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s policy manager, as saying.
The test could be out by a general physician and would work by measuring the presence of certain genes which indicate cancer has already started to develop, even though no changes can be seen on an X-ray or an MRI scan.
The technique can successfully identify cancer in at least 82 percent of women who have breast cancer and the success rate is similar to mammograms, the current screening method used to detect cancer in post-menopausal women.
“It’s likely to take many years before such a blood test becomes widely available. Women over 50 should continue to attend their NHS breast screening appointments,” Dr. Rawlings concludes.
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