A blood test could detect cancer seven years before diagnosis.
A blood test can detect cancer seven years prior to diagnosis
Two studies funded by Cancer Research UK has linked 618 proteins found in the blood of cancer patients to 19 types of the disease, including bowel, prostate and breast cancer.
107 of the proteins were found in a group of individuals whose blood was collected at least seven years prior to diagnosis.
It is now hoped that the discovery could help efforts to stop the disease before it even starts and scientists are aiming for the proteins to be used as an early form of screening.
Professor Ruth Travis, a senior molecular epidemiologist and senior author of both studies, said: "To be able to prevent cancer, we need to understand the factors driving the earliest stages of its development.
"These studies are important because they provide many new clues about the causes and biology of multiple cancers, including insights into what's happening years before a cancer is diagnosed.
"We now have technology that can look at thousands of proteins across thousands of cancer cases, identifying which proteins have a role in the development of specific cancers, and which might have effects that are common to multiple cancer types."
Tagged in Cancer