Source: www.express.co.uk
Author: Kevin O’Sullivan

Millions of lives could be saved with the development of ­ a fast new cancer test using blood from a simple pin-prick. The new test will enable ­doctors to swiftly detect the disease in its early stages and monitor it closely – giving patients the best chance of survival. It could replace painful biopsy procedures where a large amount of tissue has to be removed for tests during invasive surgery.

Doctors will remove a speck of blood smaller than a full-stop, then run it through a sophisticated machine that can pick up traces of the disease in molecules ­invisible to the human eye.


New Test: A simple pin prick is all that is needed.

Last night the announcement was hailed as a breakthrough. Scientists have focused on blood cancers but it is hoped the technique will be used on all cancers one day.

Eddie O’Gorman, chairman of Children With Leukaemia, said last night the news was a “fantastic step forward”, which could mean far less intrusive tests for children. He welcomed the tests as “great news” in the fight against cancer, which is still the world’s biggest killer. He sounded a note of caution as well. “Like all ground-breaking research, there will inevitably be a long way to go before the ­developments take effect.”

Breast cancer patient Linda Marsh, an office administrator who was diagnosed last May, welcomed any development that would cut down on the agony of waiting to hear if you have the disease. Linda, 51, from Broadstairs in Kent, said: “I had three biopsies and it was a deeply uncomfortable and quite painful process.

“But the worst thing was the not knowing. It’s an awful time so if they can reduce the waiting time it would be fantastic.”

The new study is published in the science journal Nature.

The technology works by ­identifying minute changes in “cancer-associated proteins” rather than waiting to see if a ­suspected tumour is malign by watching if it grows. It will help doctors monitor ­tumours much more closely and work out quickly if the cancer is responding to treatment.

Dr Alice Fan, who led the ­research at Stanford University School of Medicine in California, said last night: “Surgical biopsies usually require general anaesthesia and large amounts of tissue.

“If we can figure out how to go in with a needle and remove just a few cells for analysis we could repeatedly assess how the ­tumour is responding.

“The standard way we measure if a treatment is working is to wait several weeks to see if a tumour mass shrinks.

“It would be a real leap forward if we could detect what is ­happening at cellular level.”

Her colleague, Professor Dean Felsher, said analysing repeated small samples may allow doctors to “head off rogue cells at the pass” before they become more resistant to treatment. The researchers concentrated on lymphoma and leukaemia but are expanding to include head and neck tumours.

About 500 children are diagnosed with ­leukaemia in Britain every year with approximately 100 deaths.

Professor Peter Johnson, chief clinician of Cancer Research UK, said: “Using a simple blood test to diagnose cancer and find out how treatment is working is an exciting possibility.

“But this ­research is still at a very early stage so it will be some time before we know whether the ­results of these tests will translate into a reality in the clinic.”

Cancer is the leading cause of death around the globe, in all kinds of cultures, with 7.9million deaths from various forms of the disease recorded in 2007.