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Faculty of Health Science - News - Cancer_detection
New Blood Test for Early Cancer Detection Developed by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Researchers
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90 Percent Detection Rate in Clinical Tests for Multiple Types of Cancers
A
simple blood test is being developed by researchers at Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev (BGU) and Soroka University Medical Center in
Beer-Sheva, Israel that may provide early detection of many types of
cancer.
Prof. Joseph Kapelushnik
of BGU’s Faculty of Health Sciences and his team developed a device
that illuminates cancer cells with less than a teaspoon of blood. The
test uses infrared light to detect miniscule changes in the blood of a
person who has a cancerous growth somewhere, even before the disease has
spread. Various molecules released into the bloodstream cause it to
absorb infrared light slightly differently compared to that of healthy
people.
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. The researchers are focused on detection of common cancers, such as lung and ovarian cancer.
Doctors
believe that it is critical to increase cancer detection in early
stages to prevent the need for long, difficult and costly treatments in
more advanced stages.
“This
is still research in the early stages of clinical trials,” clarifies
Prof. Joseph Kapelushnik, who is also head of the Department of
Pediatric Hemato-Oncology at Soroka hospital.
“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.
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