LONDON - A new blood test can detect breast cancer at its earliest stage, according to researchers reporting in the latest issue of the Journal of Proteome Research. The blood test was able to detect breast cancer among 345 women 95 percent of the time.
The test measures the proteins in the blood and maps a cancer fingerprint. Some proteins are specific to breast and the test detects abnormalities in these proteins. Breast examination, mammography and ultrasonography as well as biopsy are the tools available with doctors currently to detect breast cancer. But most of the time, when these tools work, it will be too late for the patient. Hence it is vital to detect breast cancer early.
Researchers from University College London in the UK and the University of Pennsylvania in the US have formulated the test, which detects minute changes in the protein levels. But the researchers say that screening remains the best tool to beat cancer. "Our pilot studies show that using blood samples, breast cancer and several other types of epithelial cancers can be detected with much better sensitivity and specificity," said lead author Professor Jasminka Godovac-Zimmermann of UCL. "This may allow new, less intrusive, safer and much less expensive approaches for the early diagnosis of cancer, for distinguishing malignant and benign cancers, and for monitoring cancer therapy."
The researchers say that by altering some proteins, the test may detect other cancers too. Reacting to the study, Stephen Duffy, professor of screening at Cancer Research UK said that it was an interesting conclusion, "Further research involving an independent group of patients and healthy volunteers is needed to validate these results, and to find out if the test is equally accurate for diagnosing early breast cancer as well as advanced disease."
