Cancer could be diagnosed from just a single drop of blood.
Researchers are working on a groundbreaking new technique that would save time, money, and trauma for the patient.
Currently, most cancers are detected using scans and tissue biopsies.
A team of scientists at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam discovered that the platelets in cancer patients’ blood contains unique genetic markings.
Their findings, published in the medical journal Cancer Cell, show it could be possible to differentiate between people who have cancer and those who don’t with almost 95 per cent certainty.
Lead researcher Dr Tom Würdinger and his team studied blood samples from more than 200 cancer patients, with varying diagnoses and prognoses.
They were able to establish not only the presence of cancerous cells, but also what type of cancer they had and if it had spread to other areas of their bodies.
The scientists were able to identify the origin of the primary tumour with 71 per cent accuracy, from six different types of tumours – breast, colorectal, pancreatic, glioblastoma and hepatobiliary cancers, and non-small cell lung carcinoma.
‘We are working on an efficient blood test,’ Dr Würdinger said. ‘This is expected to be available in 2020.
‘The newly developed technique has been tested on the most common tumour types and is widely applicable.’
The research is still in the experimental phase, but there are hopes it could prove to be a major breakthrough in cancer diagnosis.