Soon, simple blood test to detect breast cancer

Scientists have developed a simple blood test that is capable of detecting breast cancer in women before it can be detected by standard screening methods.

Normal breast screening checks using x-rays – only detect a tumour once it is three of four times bigger, by which time it may have started to spread beyond the breast.

The new test, developed by a Norwegian company called Diagenic ASA, detects raised level of chemical markers for cancer picked up as blood flows through a tumour. It is expected to pick up a cancer the size of a small seed before a woman has developed any symptoms, reports telegraph.co.uk.

“This test will be particularly useful for younger women who are at risk of developing breast cancer,” said Dr James Mackay an oncologist and researcher at University College London.

“They tend to have denser breast which mammograms cannot easily penetrate. What we are suggesting is that they have a mammogram and combine it with this test so that there is a greater chance of detection,” Mackay added.

Professor Kefah Mokbel, a consultant breast surgeon at London’s St George’s Hospital, said: “We need more trials before this can be taken on by the NHS but it is an interesting development.”

“The results so far are interesting and it would be an extremely useful advance which could be combined with a mammogram to find tumours at an early stage,” Mokbel added.