LONDON: In what’s being claimed as a major breakthrough, scientists have developed a simple blood test to detect breast cancer in women.
Normal breast screening checks, using Xray mammograms, detect a tumour only once it is three or four times bigger, by which time it may have started to spread beyond breast. But, this test can pick up a cancer the size of a small seed before a woman has developed any symptoms.
Developed by the scientists, led by Norwegian company Diagenic ASA, the test looks for raised levels of chemical “markers” for cancer picked up as blood flows through tumour, the ‘Sunday Express’ reported.
So far it has proved 75 per cent effective at detecting early cancer in a number of small trials, say the scientists. Read more…
