Blood Test for Cancer is Closer Than Ever

Aug-12-14 Researchers have developed a blood test for cancer that could allow physicians to detect the disease during a general checkup, even before any symptoms begin to show.

Called a "liquid biopsy," the test was developed by Bert Vogelstein and team at Johns Hopkins University, and it is the first solid step toward a general screening tool for cancer that could be administered at an annual checkup. The test screens for molecular traces of cancer using instruments able to quickly sequence the DNA in a blood sample, which allows the clinicians to identify even tiny amounts of tumor DNA. Instead of searching for just a few cancer genes, the test lets researchers count the frequency of altered generic material—a key side effect that appears only on the chromosomes of cancer cells—and allows for a more general screening.

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