24-hour cancer blood test could be a ‘game-changer’

Consultant thoracic surgeon Eric Lim, who led the study, said the test could be “a real game changer” in the diagnosis and treatment for all types of cancer.

The test detects mutations that are commonly associated with lung, breast, ovarian, colorectal cancers and melanoma, as well as mutations that occur less frequently in other cancer types (such as pancreatic, head and neck, thyroid, gastric and prostate cancers).

“But when a blood test shows a positive result, this could mean a patient is saved from going through an unnecessary and invasive diagnostic procedure”.

Presently cancer is being diagnosed from biopsies in which a tissue sample is taken by a needle or during minor surgery.

A new blood test could help change the way cancer is diagnosed, it has been claimed.

Pathway Genomics is a business known to push the limits on direct to consumer genetic testing, and is launching a new test for cancer screening that has been designed to for the detection of cancer DNA within blood of someone who is otherwise very healthy. They also believe that early diagnosis could save lives, because family doctors will be more willing to carry out a cheap and simple test than have to refer patients to specialists.

Mr. Lim, from Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, concluded that their team is working hard to make the blood test as more effective diagnostic tool in detecting the disease.

“If we are relying on a test that can only detect cancer after it has formed, we miss a huge opportunity to intervene”, said Dr. Scott Kopetz of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Cowen & Co evaluates that use of DNA blood tests for cancer detection will exceed $10 billion a year by the end of 2020.

More research and on a wider scale is needed to back up the initial findings before any attempt could be made to use it in a clinical setting.

‘But this approach is not yet available to patients and it wouldn’t replace techniques like biopsies.

A 24-hour cancer blood test could save patients the pain of not know their diagnoses for weeks and give patients better chances of survival.

But the move by Pathway, a designer of genetic tests aligning itself to cancer risk and heart health to drug response, underlines a growing concern over how much genetic information should be passed on to healthy people if it’s not clear how it can improve their health.