A new blood test for lung cancer has been developed which can produce results within five hours and is also 600 times cheaper than other methods. Usually, a test for lung cancer would involve a biopsy of lung tissue along with DNA sequencing. This process can take up to three weeks to produce results and is then accompanied by CT scans, it also costs about £14,300. The new test costs just £24 and only requires half a teaspoon of blood.
Lead Author and instructor at Stanford University School of Medical, Dr Seung-min Park, pioneered the new blood test. The blood test works by profiling the genes of lung tumour cells. The new test will be an effective indicator to medical practitioners on what the second and third form of therapies to prescribe to patients are.
Co-author Dr Dawson Wang also added that in the future the test would not be limited to just lung cancer, but can be adapted to test for all types of cancer.
Lung cancer is one of the most common and serious types of cancer with around 44,500 Britons diagnosed every year. About one in three patients live for at least a year after diagnosis and about one in 20 people live at least 10 years.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Read the full report from the Express here.
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