A new blood test could detect more than 20 types of cancer, allowing cases to be identified and treated far earlier.

Experts said the breakthrough – which spots changes in the genes, as disease develops – could be used to improve screening for cancer, allowing treatment much sooner, when it is more likely to succeed.

View Comments (4)

Crucially, 99.4 per cent cases identified as cancer were correctly spotted – meaning just 0.6 per cent of cases were misdiagnoses of healthy patients.

The test was able to detect one third of patients with stage one disease, and three quarters of those with stage two disease.

The advances, by US scientists, look for abnormal patterns of methylation in the DNA, which can indicate different types of cancer.

The study found the new method could even pinpoint the cancer source nearly 90 per cent of the time, including for diseases like ovarian and pancreatic disease, which are some of the most difficult to spot. . . .

The patient samples comprised more than 20 types of cancer, including hormone receptor-negative breast, colorectal, oesophageal, gall bladder, gastric, head and neck, lung, lymphoid leukaemia, multiple myeloma, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer.

The test accurately detected 76 per cent of high mortality cancers.

Within this group, the test accuracy was 32 per cent for patients with stage one cancer; 76 per cent for those with stage two; 85 per cent for stage three; and 93 per cent for stage four.

Dr Oxnard said: “Detecting even a modest percent of common cancers early could translate into many patients who may be able to receive more effective treatment if the test were in wide use.”

(Excerpt from The Telegraph. Article by Laura Donnelly.)