Cancer can now be detected with the newly developed blood test, four years before its symptoms appear. The scientists who developed it claimed that the mortality rate could be reduced if it is proven effective. According to BGR's latest report, almost 635,000 people lost their lives to COVID-19, and nearly 15.48 million cases had been reported. Thus, forcing many medical experts to create different innovations that would help reduce the death cases.
"What we showed is: up to four years before these people walk into the hospital, there are already signatures in their blood that show they have cancer," said Kun Zhang, a bioengineer at the University of California.
"That's never been done before," he added.
Zhang and his team created the new blood test using a new approach. Compared to previous medical experiments, the researchers used blood samples from people who were already diagnosed with cancer. The study was able to recruit 123,000 volunteers from Taizhou, China.
Annual health checks, which include blood sample collections, were given to the patients. 1.6 million specimens were stored in a special warehouse, specifically designed for the study's purpose. The researchers were able to collect samples from 1,100 participants who developed cancer in the following 10 years, allowing them to identify the cancer signals.
The new test is called PanSeer, which can identify methylation patterns associated with different types of cancer. Since DNA interaction is involved, the chemical process can alter genetic activity.
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