A new blood test can detect brain tumours in their infancy in a development hailed as “transformative” for patients and doctors.
Currently diagnosis can take more than eight weeks, requiring several GP visits, with delays common due to non-cancer diagnoses, experts say.
It is hoped the ability to identify tumours at an earlier stage can reduce harms from surgery and fast-track patients into brain-imaging scans for better survival outcomes.
In a new study, blood samples from 177 patients with varying sizes of brain tumours were analysed using patented technology by Glasgow-based health-tech firm Dxcover, which used spectroscopic analysis under infra-red light and then machine learning software.
The findings, published in the journal Cancers, showed the test was effective at identifying patients with tumours as small as 0.2cm.
Some 12,000 people in Britain are diagnosed with brain tumours annually and survival rates are as low as 12% five years after diagnosis, according to Cancer Research UK.
Our liquid biopsy platform is powerful tool to detect the presence of cancer. And it's as simple as Drop, Dry, Detect.
— Dxcover (@DxcoverLtd) July 26, 2021
To find out more, please see our website: https://t.co/htmjB34PC2 pic.twitter.com/n2AUKUuePt
Dr Paul Brennan, a consultant neurosurgeon at the University of Edinburgh, said diagnosis is difficult “because the most common symptoms are not specific to brain tumours”.
He said: “A non-cancer diagnosis is more likely and this contributes to diagnostic delay.
“The Dxcover test will support primary care doctors to identify which of these patients are most likely to have a brain tumour and should be referred for rapid brain imaging.
“This will be transformative for both patients and doctors.”
Dr Matt Baker, Dxcover’s chief technical officer, hailed the results as “a watershed moment in the development of early cancer detection” which could “increase treatment options and potentially extend life expectancy”.
“Clinical tests like this are a crucial part of Dxcover’s journey to develop and commercialise a widely accepted multi-cancer early detection platform to help save lives”, he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here