Joe Biden expressed on Monday, September 12 his dream of “cure cancers once and for all”. It seems that medical research did not wait for it to make great progress, since a blood test capable of detecting more than 50 types of cancer was unveiled the same day.
A study by oncologists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York found cancers in 1.4% of 6,621 people. Among them, 62% were unaware that they had a tumour. The operation of the test is simple: it detects the presence of tumor DNA in the blood.
Conversely, of the 6,290 people who were not sick, 99.1% did receive a negative result. This blood test therefore also has the advantage of delivering few false positives.
Dangerous cancers detected
Among the positive tests, cancer was confirmed in 38% of them in less than three months. In addition to determining the presence of disease, the test can predict where the cancer is, making diagnosis even easier and faster.
The study thus revealed cancers of the breast, liver, lungs, colon, but also blood, pancreas or ovary. These last three are often detected late, and people who suffer from them have little chance of survival. Other cancers such as those of the small intestine or the stomach can also be detected.
Considerable progress
“This study shows that there is hope on the horizon for the detection of cancers that currently cannot be screened, but of course there is still a lot of work to be done and, with experience and larger samples, these tests will improve,” explained Deborah Shrag, the essay’s lead author.
Being able to detect tumors earlier would allow earlier treatment to begin and improve cure rates for cancer patients. Detecting the disease even before its first symptoms therefore represents a considerable advance, especially since it is a method that is minimally invasive for the patient.