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In cancer it is mainly a matter of time to prevent the problematic cells of cancerous growth from reaching vital organs and beginning to affect their functioning. Once they spread throughout the body and enter the bloodstream, it truly becomes a major problem that complicates treatment. Timely diagnosis is therefore crucial. A completely new and excellent result of research that may help a great deal in the future are blood tests that can detect the presence of cancer cells roughly 10 years before the disease actually manifests.
Blood test for cancer mutations
Cancer is essentially mutated cells that do not behave as expected. On the contrary, they are so damaged that their only activity is uncontrolled proliferation. A new test can be used to detect them. The result is thus not so much whether you already have the disease, but primarily whether you have a predisposition to develop cancer due to the presence of multiple mutated cells. This blood test can be compared to a smoke detector, which also does not detect the fire itself but the smoke it causes.
Early diagnosis for more effective treatment
The advantages of this significantly earlier and also relatively rapid diagnostic method lie mainly in the possibility of highly effective treatment during the early stages of the disease. In practice, a concerning result from this basic blood test would primarily lead to more thorough monitoring of the patient’s condition and the regular performance of additional supplementary tests to check whether cancer is appearing anywhere. Given that cancer symptoms are very nonspecific and especially difficult to detect at first, this approach can help quite significantly.
Tests still need improvement
The test is certainly very positive, but to avoid false positive results its evaluation needs to be refined a bit more. However, the research is on a very good path with promising prospects for the future.
