Cancer test using blood shows promise

A simple test using a teaspoon of blood might provide early detection of many types of cancer, researchers in Israel said. Professor Joseph Kapelushnik, head of the department of pediatric hemato-oncology at Soroka University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva, Israel, and of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and his team developed a device that illuminates cancer cells. The test uses infrared light to detect miniscule changes in the blood of someone who has a cancerous growth, even before the disease has spread. Various molecules released into the bloodstream cause blood to absorb infrared light in a slightly differently way than in healthy people, Kapelushnik said. In the latest clinical trial with 200 patients and a control group, the test identified specific cancers in 90 percent of the patients and found other types of cancer, as well. "This is still research in the early stages of clinical trials," Kapelushnik said in a statement. "But the purpose is to develop an efficient, cheap and simple method to detect as many types of cancers as possible. We want to be able to detect cancer while a patient is still feeling good, before it has a chance to metastasize, meaning fewer treatments, less suffering and many more lives saved." More clinical trials will be conducted in the next 18 months.