A new test, which is called the “wise blood tester” that is detecting aggressive prostate cancer from a blood sample, can save thousands of lives.
It can show when a tumor is a type that can quickly spread to the body, suggests research.
The test identifies prostate cancer patients with aggressive forms of the disease whose death risk is ten times higher than men with relatively slow, slow-to-to-survive malignant tumors.
This allows doctors to personalize treatments given to the individual at an early stage, say scientists at Mary Mary’s London University.
The test is one of the first in a series of ‘liquid biopsies’ that experts believe will revolutionize cancer treatment.
Researchers have said a groundbreaking new blood test that can detect eight common types of cancer before they spread will save countless lives.
They said “liquid biopsy” – developed in the US – would be a game-changer in the fight against cancer, and hoped it could be widely available within a few years.
The test was able to detect tumours about 70% of the time on average in more than 1,000 patients with early-stage cancer. Crucially, it did so before the cancers had spread, giving patients the best chance of beating the disease.
It works by looking for mutated DNA that dying cells shed into the blood, and protein biomarkers associated with bowel, breast, liver, lung, oesophageal, ovarian, pancreatic and stomach cancer.