AI can detect 3 of the deadliest cancers in minutes – from just one drop of dried blood
AN AI-POWERED test could detect three major types of cancer using just a drop of dried blood, a study suggests.
The tool could spot bowel, stomach and pancreatic cancers within minutes, Chinese researchers found.
It could help reduce undiagnosed cases in less developed countries around the world by up to 55 per cent, they said.
Lead author Ruimin Wang, of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said: “Over a billion people across the world experience a high rate of missed disease diagnosis.
“This highlights the need for diagnostic tools showing increased accuracy and affordability.
“Our approach allows diagnosis of multiple cancers within minutes at affordable cost.”
Bowel cancer is now the third most common cancer in Britain, with 41,596 Brits diagnosed in 2021.
It is the UK’s second deadliest cancer, claiming 16,000 lives each year.
There are around 6,500 new stomach cancer cases annually in the country, while 10,500 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Survival rates of all three are much higher if the cancer is spotted earlier, with researchers constantly looking to improve ways of testing for the disease.
Most current blood tests for the diseases use liquid blood to spot markers of the cancer, and are not powerful enough to diagnose any of them individually.
Dr Chaoyuan Kuang, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who was not involved in the research, said using dried blood could be a gamechanger.
He said dried blood can be “collected, stored and transported at much lower cost and with much simpler equipment”.
He told Live Science: “This could help democratise the availability of cancer early detection testing across the world.”
The study, published in Nature Sustainability, looked at how well a new test that can screen for the three diseases using dried blood functions.
AI-POWERED
The tool uses artificial intelligence to analyse biomarkers in the blood, and was tested in proof-of-concept, preliminary experiments.
It identified when a patient had cancer around 82 to 100 percent of the time, researchers said.
They estimate the proportion of undiagnosed bowel cancer cases could be reduced from 84 to 29 per cent if the tests were implemented in less-developed countries.
Undiagnosed stomach cancer cases could be reduced from 78 to 57 per cent, while pancreatic cases could fall from 35 to 9 per cent, they said.
But Dr Kuang said: “We are most likely still years away from being able to offer this test to patients in a widespread fashion.”
KNOWING BOWEL CANCER SIGNS COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE
BOWEL cancer is the fourth most common form of the disease in the UK – but the second deadliest, claiming around 16,000 lives a year.
Yet it can be cured, if it’s diagnosed early enough.
Fewer than one in ten people survive bowel cancer if it’s picked up at stage 4, but detected at stage 1 – before it’s spread – and more than nine in ten patients will live five years or longer.
There are two ways to ensure early diagnosis, screening and awareness of the symptoms.
Brits have been subjected to a postcode lottery when it comes to bowel cancer screening, with tests sent out in Scotland from 50, while people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have to wait until they are 60.
That’s why The Sun launched the No Time 2 Lose campaign, calling on the Government to lower the screening age, to save thousands of lives a year.
In the summer of 2018, Matt Hancock agreed, in a victory for The Sun and campaigners – yet three years on and screening at 50 has yet to be widely rolled out.
While screening is an important part of early diagnosis, so is knowing the symptoms and acting if you spot the signs.
The five red-flag symptoms are:
- Bleeding from the back passage, or blood in your poo
- A change in your normal toilet habits – going more or less often for example
- Pain or lump in your tummy
- Extreme tiredness for no real reason
- Unexplained weight loss
If you’re worried, don’t be embarrassed and speak to your GP – doctors see and deal with bowel problems all the time.