Australian scientists have made a cancer breakthrough that will allow doctors to detect eight types of the deadly disease with a simple blood test.
Melbourne-based researchers Professor Peter Gibbs and Associate Professor Jeanne Tie were part of an American-led research team developing a new ‘liquid biopsy’.
The scientists from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute worked with researchers from John Hopkins University School of Medicine to develop CancerSEEK to potentially save millions of Australians from a leading cause of death.
Melbourne researchers Peter Gibbs and Jeanne Tie were part of a U.S.-led team that developed a blood test for eight kinds of cancer
It can detect the early stages of breast, ovarian, liver, stomach, pancreas, oesophagus, bowel and lung cancers so doctors are able to remove it before it spreads and potentially turns malignant.
Lung and breast cancers were the fourth and 13th most common causes of death in Australia in 2016, Australia Bureau of Statistics figures show.
Associate Professor Tie said the blood test would have the potential to be a one-stop screening for multiple tumours.
‘For the first time we have the promise of a screening test that will lead to earlier diagnosis and improved survival outcomes for many tumour types that are major contributors to cancer deaths in our community,’ she said.
The CancerSEEK blood test would be able to test for eight different types of early onset cancer
With 134,174 new cancer cases last year diagnosed in Australia, the new blood test would screen for key proteins and gene mutations that indicate cancer.
The research was published on Friday in the international journal Science, and also had input from Italian researchers.
Professor Gibbs said the blood tests that could accurately detect the early stages of cancer, well before symptoms are present.
‘While screening tests for some cancers have already been developed, and are associated with earlier diagnosis and better outcomes, for many major tumour types there are no effective screening tests,’ he said.
‘The currently available screening tests can also be unpleasant, have associated risks and uptake can be low.
‘Significantly each test can only screen for one cancer at a time.’
Like a mammogram, a blood test could be used to detect the early onset of breast cancer
The CancerSEEK test was able to positively detect between 69 and 98 per cent of people who had ovary, liver, stomach, pancreas or oesophagus cancer.
There are no screening tests yet available for average-risk individuals.
Fewer than one per cent of people in the trial had a false positive result from the test.