Blood test may detect early breast cancer

Breast cancer is a serious disease that endangers women's health. Recently, a study found that blood tests may be able to detect early breast cancer. Scientists say they have established a blood test that can predict whether a woman will develop the disease years before it appears.

The technology, which involves testing for compounds in the blood, is still in its early stages, but in the long run it could help people with the disease get treatment earlier and help doctors help women at risk reduce their chances of developing the disease.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark say the new test can predict breast cancer two to five years before it develops with 80 percent accuracy, compared with mammograms, which are only 75 percent accurate in detecting the disease.

Details of the test have been published in the journal Metabolomics.

"This method is better than mammograms, which can only be used after the disease has occurred. It's not perfect, but it's great that it can help us predict whether breast cancer is likely to occur in the future," said researcher Professor Rasmus Bro.

The study is based on a follow-up study of 57,053 men and women conducted by the Danish Cancer Society over more than 20 years. The scientists used blood samples from more than 400 women who were diagnosed with breast cancer 2 to 7 years after giving their first blood sample. These samples were compared with an equal number of women who did not develop the disease.

The scientists then looked at each person's profile, detecting chemical changes that precede the development of breast cancer.

More trials are still needed to optimise the technology, but "the potential is that we could detect diseases like breast cancer much sooner than we can today. This is important because earlier detection makes the disease more treatable," said researcher Lars Ove Dragsted.

But even though a blood test might identify women at higher risk, some of them may never develop the disease, said Matthew Lam, senior research officer at Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the Breast Cancer Campaign in the United Kingdom.

If you're concerned about your risk, talk to your doctor, Lam said. "For some women, additional testing may be an option, as mammograms remain our best tool for early detection of breast cancer."

The American Cancer Society estimates that approximately 231,000 American women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in 2015.