
Blood Tests That Will Detect Breast Cancer
British scientists are trying to make history and revolutionize the way we treat breast cancer. And there is nothing super complicated about it. It is just an inexpensive, simple blood test that will tell women whether their breast cancer, which has been treated and deemed cured, is every likely to return.
What is also very important is that this test will be able to detect any cancerous cell approximately eight months before a woman can feel a lump or any new tumor that was never there or is not supposed to be there. This is crucial since eight months can provide the required time to cure the cancer and make sure it never even develops in the first place.
Dr Nicholas Turner, the current study’s leader expressed his hopes saying that there is “promise for a blood test like this”. Experts believe that the test, which is a DNA test by the way, could be easily spread all around the world within 5 years and that doctors will be able to keep an eye out for breast cancer and “outsmart” it with this new medical advancement.
And breast cancer is not the only one which could succumb to this new blood test. It can also be applied to other cancers such as lung cancer, prostate cancer or bowel cancer. In Britain, breast cancer is the most commonly developed cancer and around 12 percent of the women in the country are going to be diagnosed with this cancer somewhere during their lifetime.
Approximately 500 thousand women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year and around 12 thousand of them will die because of it. The majority of deaths occur with a similar pattern: breast cancer is identified, treated, cured then women come back with a re-emerged cancer which is in such an advanced state that there is nothing more that can be done to avoid the inevitable.
While the treatment of breast cancer has improved, the disease still remains incurable. Thus, the blood tests give a glimmer of hope to patients and doctors alike. The researchers who are conducting the study have already studied blood samples from 55 women who have undergone treatment for breast cancer that was in its early stages.
While all the women underwent surgery, chemotherapy and had their tumors cut out, there is always a chance that tumor cells will remain unchecked, thus causing the disease to re-emerge. The doctors seem confident when discussing about their tests, so now we must hope and pray that their study might give women a solution for a better life.
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