Medical News Depository

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"Experimental Blood Test Detects Cancer up to Four Years before Symptoms Appear"

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experimental-blood-test-detects-cancer-up-to-four-years-before-symptoms-appear/

From reddit:

I actually work with these tests and it's the new big thing in cancer detection. Cell-free DNA detected in the blood plasma can be collected. When cells die off they release DNA into the bloodstream, having a half life of around only 30 minutes. Very, very short. If you have a small tumour, well-connected to the blood stream, the cells will die at a higher rate. That higher rate of cell death, via apoptosis or necrosis will increase the levels of cell-free DNA in your blood plasma. That's the first sign. Then if you create a targetted panel of genes to cancer, you can match up your cell-free DNA to detect mutations being given off.

This method, should it continue to prove good, will help cancer screening. Many tumours can't be imaged until they are big enough, or a biopsy may be too difficult or dangerous to take.

https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/i0mec2/experimental_blood_test_detects_cancer_up_to_four/