British scientists claim they’ve developed a groundbreaking — and shockingly simple — blood test that could detect cancer and prompt early, life-saving measures.
The tests are aimed at analyzing white blood cell which are “under stress” when there’s cancer or precancerous growth in the body, researchers wrote in the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.
“We know that they are under stress when they are fighting cancer or other diseases, so I wondered whether anything measurable could be seen if we put them under further stress with UVA light,” according to lead researcher Diana Anderson, from the University of Bradford’s School of Life Sciences.
“We found that people with cancer have DNA which is more easily damaged by ultraviolet light than other people.”
The Lymphocyte Genome Sensitivity (LGS) tests looked at blood samples from 208 people — including healthy university staff and students and patients at the Bradford Royal Infirmary.
UVA light was shined on all blood samples, and DNA damage perfectly correlated to conditions of each subject, according to researchers.
The 58 subjects with the most damaged DNA samples turned out to be cancer patients, while 56 with precancerous conditions showed moderate DNA damage, researchers said.
The 94 cancer-free samples similarly showed minimal DNA damage after being exposed to UVA light, according to findings.
“These are early results completed on three different types of cancer and we accept that more research needs to be done; but these results so far are remarkable,” Anderson said.