Blood Test Rivals Mammography for Cancer Detection

A new blood test that identifies a pattern of abnormal proteins indicative of developing breast cancer has provided results at least as effective as mammography. Details on the study were presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (TX, USA).

In the trial, blood samples were collected from hundreds of women who came to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX, USA) or Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC, USA) for evaluation of an abnormal mammogram or a breast mass for the presence of breast cancer. Some of these women were later diagnosed with cancer. Using proteomics, researchers examined all the blood samples to identify proteins present in the blood of women with cancer that are not found in women without the disease.

"A protein blood test could allow a greater ability to detect early breast cancer and to also potentially decrease the concerns that occur with false-positive mammography,” says Gordon Mills, M.D., Ph.D., professor of molecular therapeutics at M.D. Anderson and one of the investigators. He stresses, however, that future studies with larger numbers of women at multiple medical centers will be required prior to this being used as a screening or diagnostic approach.





Related Links:
M.D. Anderson
Duke Med. Center