US scientists have found a way to identify 50 types of cancers with great accuracy with one of the most basic medical diagnostic tools: a b...
US scientists have found a way to identify 50 types of cancers with great accuracy with one of the most basic medical diagnostic tools: a blood test.
The research, published in the journal Annals of Oncology, says scientists have relied on tumor DNA, which is the backbone of this new test.
Tumors often pour their DNA into the blood. This contributes to what is called non-cellular DNA. It wanders in human blood. Cellular DNA can also come from other healthy things. But the task of this test is to sort out for signs that the DNA might come from a tumor of cancer.
New blood test could help detect cancer extremely effectively - Artwork from AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
The author of the study, Dr. Michael Seiden, President of the US Cancer Agency, said the false positive rate of this method is very low. It is only 0.7%, a very small number for blood tests and other cancer screening methods. Old screening diagnostic tools have much higher errors. For example, in the recent US national screening strategy for breast cancer, up to 10% were misdiagnosed.
Of course in the early stages - no symptoms or symptoms begin. The true positive rate will be lower because the genetic markers of the tumor in the blood are unclear. However, this is still a breakthrough because blood testing is a non-invasive method. It can be applied many times and is less expensive, less risky than common invasive methods like biopsies.
These positive results come from a blood sample test of nearly 4,000 volunteers. Among them are healthy people and people with cancer.
People with cancer have up to 50 different types of cancer. Of these, 12 are the most deadly cancers (accounting for 63% of cancer deaths in the US). Including cancer such as colon, stomach, lung, pancreas ... With these 12 types of cancer, the true positive rate is a little lower.
Scientists are still researching and testing more to increase the effectiveness and accuracy of the test, as well as towards more widespread clinical trials.
Mr. Nerd
