A new blood test can predict the risk of breast cancer returning three years before any tumours show up on scans in an “incredibly exciting” breakthrough that could help more women beat the disease for good. More than 2 million women are diagnosed every year with breast cancer, the most prevalent type of the disease. Although treatment has improved in recent decades, the cancer often returns, and if it does, it is usually at a more advanced stage.
But now research presented to the world’s largest cancer conference has shown that a personalised liquid biopsy could provide a very early warning sign that cancer is returning. Results from a trial of the tests, revealed at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago, suggest they may help reveal which women need preventive therapy and which patients can be spared it. The test detects minuscule amounts of cancer DNA in the bloodstream.
Trial results show it is so sensitive that it can accurately predict the risk of cancer coming back, months or even years before the usual signs or symptoms start to emerge. Researchers at the Breast Cancer Now Toby Robins research centre in London were able to identify every patient in the trial who later went on to relapse. The average time to relapse was 15 months; the longest 41 months.
“Early detection is one of our greatest weapons against breast cancer and these initial findings, which suggest tests could be able to detect signs of breast cancer recurrence ove.
