New Blood Test May Become Cancer Detection Tool

New Blood Test May Become Cancer Detection Tool

Written By Elizabeth Price on 05 January 2011.    

Johnson & Johnson announced they are joining forces to bring a blood test so sensitive; it can distinguish a single cancer cell in the midst of a billion healthy ones. This announcement means the test is closer to being used by your doctor as an early diagnostic tool.

Dr. Daniel Haber, one of the test’s inventors and chief of Massachusetts General Hospital’s cancer center, describes the test as a liquid biopsy. The blood test eliminates the need for agonizingly painful tissue samples and it offers an alternative to repetitive body scans for monitoring. In due course, researchers hope the blood test will become an alternative method of screening, reducing the need for mammograms and colonoscopies.

Four of the nation’s largest and most prestigious cancer centers will join forces with the Boston scientists who invented the tests and Johnson & Johnson in a multi-million dollar experimental project later this year. The project will incorporate experimental studies in order to ready the test for the market.
Use of the new blood test would allow doctors to monitor a patient’s response to a drug regimen more efficiently. The doctors would quickly be able to find out if the current treatment is working, ultimately lengthening life spans of cancer patients.