Newly Developed Home-based Test Can Predict Breast Cancer Return

Timely breast cancer detection helps lower the risks and complications associated with the disease. It also makes treatment more efficient. A new ultra-sensitive blood test has been unraveled, and it is capable of predicting if breast cancer will return years before the disease is detected through scans.

According to researchers, the newly developed blood test is capable of picking up traces of cancer tumor DNAs before the full relapse. The test was also 100% accurate at predicting which patients would likely see the return of their cancer.

The Need to Cure Breast Cancer

In 2022 alone, roughly 670,000 deaths and 2.2 women were diagnosed with breast cancer worldwide. More than half of women treated for this cancer had no underlying risk factors aside sex and age, which makes the situation even difficult to handle.

Breast cancer is a disease where abnormal cells grow out of control and develop tumors. The cancer is believed to be more prevalent in 157 countries out of 185 surveyed. The cells usually begin to grow inside the milk duct or the milk-producing lobules and the earliest form of the disease may not be deadly, however, it needs to be treated when detected early to prevent the condition advancing to the deadly stage.

With invasive cancer cells attacking nearby cells in the lymph nodes, the condition becomes untreatable when it affects nearby organs and healthy cells, hence it must be stopped as early as possible.

Renewed Hope for Cancer Treatment

It is believed the newly developed blood test will allow cancer treatments to start earlier while improving survival rates. The research, conducted in the United Kingdom, has been tagged “exciting” by medical experts but remains in its early stages of development.

Breast Cancer — The Commonest Form of Cancer

Breast cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer diseases worldwide, with more than 2.2 women diagnosed in 2020 and more than 680,000 deaths recorded in the same year (Breast Cancer UK).

According to a team of researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London, a trial conducted on 78 patients with different phases of early breast cancer shows some interesting results.

A liquid biopsy was examined for 1,800 mutations in the cancer patient’s blood released by the cancer cells. The circulating tumor DNA was discovered in 11 of the women who found out their cancer relapsed, but no other person among the participants saw their cancer return.

Based on the results of the research, the new blood test detected cancer roughly 15 months before the symptoms appeared or before they were confirmed on scans. The research results were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, United States of America.

New Blood Tests is Incredibly Exciting

The research conducted on the blood tests was repeated 3 months later with a resolution that it would be done every 6 months for the next 5 years. Experts are beginning to use blood tests for early detection as one of the greatest weapons against breast cancer. With the new tests detecting signs of breast cancer reoccurrence at least a year before early symptoms, treatment effectiveness will surely increase over the years.

In the United Kingdom alone, roughly 11,000 women die yearly from secondary cancer, and breakthroughs like this one are needed urgently to lower the risks and death associated with breast cancer.

Conclusion

The new blood test follows several other developments in cancer research in recent times, and these include a saliva test for identifying men at higher risk of prostate cancer and breakthroughs in skin melanoma treatment.