Science / Medicine : Simple Blood Test Able to Detect All Types of Cancer

A University of Colorado researcher says he has developed a simple, inexpensive blood test that appears to detect all types of cancer accurately before physical symptoms appear. Biochemist Stuart Gordon reported last week in the journal Cancer Research that the blood test proved successful during a preliminary study involving 128 blood samples. The test, which uses just a few drops of blood, detects a protein that appears to be present at high levels only when normal cells are becoming malignant.

“This is too small a study to make any absolute statement,” said Gordon, but it’s enough to make researchers proceed with full-fledged clinical trials. He said the clinical trials will begin within the next three or four months. At least 1,000 people will be tested over a period of up to two years, according to Gordon.

In the preliminary trials, the blood test was 100% effective in identifying the protein shed by cancer cells in the early stages of the disease, but was less effective--76%--in dealing with late-stage cancers.

Michael Glode, an oncologist at the CU Cancer Center, said Gordon’s early results are interesting, but it is too early to tell whether the test is better than other tests now used.