Blood test 'can check for more than 50 types of cancer'

[nitpicker]

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52090359

Blood test 'can check for more than 50 types of cancer'

By Michelle Roberts
Health editor, BBC News online

31 March 2020

A simple blood test can check for more than 50 types of cancer, often before any signs or symptoms, scientists say.

It could help diagnose tumours sooner, when they are easier to treat and, ideally, cure, experts hope.

More than 99% of positive results are accurate, the team says, but it will be crucial to check it does not miss cases and provide false assurance.

Doctors are using it in trials with patients but more studies are needed, they say in Annals of Oncology.

Trial data suggests it is better at detecting more advanced disease rather than the beginnings of cancer, which may limit how useful it becomes.

The test looks for telltale chemical changes to bits of genetic code - cell-free DNA - that leak from tumours into the bloodstream.

The researchers, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, working with UK colleagues from The Francis Crick Institute and University College London, tested more than 4,000 samples from patients - some with and some without cancer.

More than 50 types of cancer, such as bowel, lung and ovarian, were included.

And in 96% of the samples, the test accurately detected the type of cancer.
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