A single blood test for diagnosing eight types of cancer

The diagnosis of cancer is sometimes very challenging and can be a long-term process in case of cancers that take a long time to grow. Various cancers such as ovarian cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, etc. take time to grow and are difficult to diagnose. However, there is a new blood test called CancerSEEK that can help in the diagnosis of eight types of cancer by examining just one blood sample.

A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, used CancerSEEK test on more than thousand people diagnosed with non-metastatic (not spread) cancer. It was found that the test identified nearly 70% of the cancers. Moreover, the test accurately diagnosed 33% cases of breast cancer and 98% cases of ovarian cancer. For other five types of cancer, the results were found to be about 69-98% accurate.

The test examines a blood sample to identify markers for the 16 types of genetic mutations and the eight proteins associated with different types of cancer, i.e. lung, breast, liver, ovarian, stomach, esophageal, and pancreatic.

Cancer is the reason behind millions of deaths every year. The main reason behind these deaths is that the diagnosis of cancer is mostly delayed and by the time it is diagnosed, it is too late to provide treatment. This new CancerSEEK test can possibly make the diagnosis of cancer easy and help in the treatment of the conditions in their early stages.