Revolutionary Cancer tool could save your life

The key to fighting cancer is to get an early diagnosis. Up until now, that has meant a lot of visits to the doctor and a lot of monitoring or scans. Now a group of scientists from the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in Melbourne have claimed that they have created a new way of diagnosis cancer through a simple blood test.

Called a “liquid biopsy” it will save patients painful, invasive surgery and can help minimise the time between a patient being diagnosed with cancer and getting the treatment they need.

Professor Jonathan Cebon told the ABC, “We have patients who have stage four melanoma who are literally riddled with cancer … they can’t wait for several weeks”. This blood test means that cancer treatment can be determined much earlier allowing for a higher survival rate in cancer patients.

While this new form of test will only work for certain types of cancer now, the hope is that with development that they will be able to cover more types of cancer and maybe used as a screen for other types.

What do you think? Have you or someone you know had to battle cancer where this type of blood test would have helped?