Standard cancer screening may one day extend beyond clinical and radiological exams to include blood tests. A liquid biopsy blood test identified dozens of previously undiagnosed cancer cases in a study published on April 28 in Science.
In the study of 9,900 women with no other evidence of cancer, the test identified 26 cancer cases, including lymphomas, colorectal, uterine, lung, breast, and ovarian cancers. Another 24 cancer cases were detected through standard screening, including mammography.
About two-thirds of the cancers identified by the test were early stage, and it showed a specificity of 99.6% when followed by PET-CT imaging. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, who developed the liquid biopsy test, noted the test could be combined with conventional screening for breast, colon, and lung tumors or stand on its own for cancers that don't yet have an established screening method.
