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The Answer To Cancer Is In A Blood Test

Blood test

A new study conducted by researchers from Northwestern and Harvard Universities have identified a new technique that is able to predict those who will develop cancer, years before current diagnostic techniques.

The study detected a distinct pattern in the changing lengths of telomeres, the protective end caps on our strands of DNA. The studies lead author, and associate professor in Preventative Medicine – Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Lifang Hou said, “Understanding this pattern of telomere growth may mean it can be a predictive biomarker for cancer”.

Understanding this pattern of telomere growth may mean it can be a predictive biomarker for cancer (…) Because we saw a strong relationship in the pattern across a wide variety of cancers, with the right testing these procedures could be used to eventually diagnose a wide variety of cancers.

A report on the study by CBS reports that researchers looked at the measurement of telomeres in 792 people over the course of 13 years. Of these participants, 135 were eventually diagnosed with different types of cancers, including prostate, skin, lung, leukemia and others.

In the participants who developed cancer, according to Medical News Today, the telomeres looked as much as 15 years older than those of the participants who did not develop cancer. But what was surprising was that the accelerated aging stopped 3-4 years before cancer diagnosis. Prof. Hou adds, “we saw a strong relationship in the pattern.”

Because we saw a strong relationship in the pattern across a wide variety of cancers, with the right testing these procedures could be used to eventually diagnose a wide variety of cancers (…) We saw the inflection point at which rapid telomere shortening stabilizes. We found cancer has hijacked the telomere shortening in order to flourish in the body

The researchers said the findings could lead to a blood test for cancer that could lead to earlier treatments, when they can be most effective at containing or eliminating cancer.

In other cancer related news here at Immortal News the cases of breast cancer are said to rise 50 percent by 2030.

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