A Blood Test That Screens For Cancer

sciencehabit writes "People usually find out that they have cancer after developing symptoms or through a screening test such as a mammogram—signs that may appear only after the cancer has grown or spread so much that it can't be cured. But what if you could find out from a simple, highly accurate blood test that you had an incipient tumor? By sequencing the abnormal DNA that a tumor releases into a person's bloodstream, researchers are now one step closer to a universal cancer test. Although the technique is now only sensitive enough to detect advanced cancers, that may be a matter of money: As sequencing costs decrease, the developers of the method say the test could eventually pick up early tumors as well."

Comments

Re:Every cancer is different

[clickclickdrone]

may just end up detecting many small cancers

Exactly. ISTR reading that at any one time, most people have dozens of small 'cancers' but in most cases, the body destroys them before they get a hold. It's only when our own defences fail that the cancer goes on to become a 'proper' one and become a health hazard.