On the horizon- cheap, easy blood test for forecasting cancer

[packman]

A revolutionary blood test, which acts like a smoke detector to spot cancer up to 10 years before symptoms appear, could be available within five years.

Scientists at Swansea University have discovered that mutations occur in red blood cells way before any signs of cancer are evident.

They have devised a simple test which hunts for the mutations and can indicate if cancer is present in just a couple of hours.



Number of lives which could be saved with earlier diagnosis: 10,000
Number of people diagnosed with cancer each year (2013): 352,197
Annual deaths from cancer (2012): 161,823
Chance of living at least 10 years after cancer diagnosis (as of 2010-11):50%
Percentage of cancer cases which are preventable 41%

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/06/cancer-smoke-detector-test-can-spot-the-disease-10-years-before/

[randome]

1. I donate platelets to the Red Cross every 2 weeks.

It would be cool if they could also test me for pre-cancerous signs at the same time.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[anamandujano]

2. My doctor was reading my blood test results and told me I didn't have cancer.

I asked incredulously if they could tell from bloodwork. She said yes. I had full bloodwork, not just the fingerprick test they are talking about here.

[packman]

3. Ahh, was that a blood test for prostate cancer?

If you read the article, there is NO universal cancer test for cancer cells - Universal. The only test for cancer cells, I am aware of, is the prostate test. Please correct me if I am wrong. Otherwise they take skin, tissue or organ samples for testing.

That is what the article is about - this type of blood test is new and is not expected to be on the market for at least another five years.

[anamandujano]

4. I'm a woman, no need for a prostate test. I just did a quick search and found this,

http://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20060913/blood-test-for-cancer

Here is the first page, bold text mine. There is another page.

Blood Test for Cancer?
If Protein Is Present, Cancer Is Present, Say Researchers
By Charlene Laino
WebMD Health News
WebMD News Archive

Sept. 13, 2006 (Chicago) -- Researchers have identified a protein in the blood present only in people with cancer that may help doctors spot cancer early.

The protein, called tNOX, is the first tumor marker for all cancers ever described, says D. James Morre, PhD, distinguished professor of medicinal chemistry at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.

"If tNOX is present, cancer is present," he tells WebMD. "Presumably, the more there is, the worse the disease."

Putting tNOX to the Test

Normal cells have the NOX enzyme only when they are dividing in response to growth hormone signals. In contrast, cancer cells have NOX activity at all times.

This overactive form of NOX, known as tNOX -- for tumor-associated NOX -- has long been thought to be vital for the growth of cancer cells because drugs that inhibit tNOX activity also block tumor cell growth.

In two new studies presented here at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, Morre and colleagues put the protein to the test.

It passed with flying colors, he says.
Test Predicts Prostate Cancer Progression

The first study involved 19 men with advanced metastatic prostate cancer.

The researchers found that the nine men whose prostate cancer continued to progress -- based on their PSA levels, a blood test elevated in most men with prostate cancer -- had 60% more tNOX in their blood compared with the 10 men with stable or falling PSA levels.

"It's the first demonstration that we have, assuming that PSA levels indicate major tumor burden in some fashion, that there is a really good correlation between tNOX levels and response to therapy," Morre says.

He believes the test will be even more useful than PSA. The reason: A man can have high PSA levels and not have cancer. The tNOX enzyme, on the other hand, is only present if there is cancer.
Test Spots Lung Cancer

The second study looked at tNOX levels in 421 volunteers, including people with lung cancer, smokers who had not been diagnosed with lung cancer, and healthy individuals.

Among the 104 people with lung cancer, 103 tested positive for tNOX. In smokers older than 40, 12% were positive, which Moore says is about the normal rate of lung cancer picked up with high resolution CT scanning.

[packman]

5. Thank you for the post

was not aware of this. They caught my prostate cancer with the PSA test.

[anamandujano]

6. Whew! I hope you're on the road to recovery now.

When I have the time I'm going to find my lab results and find the test they did or email my doctor to see if she can elucidate.