WINNING the war against CANCER

There’s been a revolution in disease detection and treatment. Here’s where real progress is being made

EARLY DETECTION

NEW BREATH TEST

Currently in development, the non-invasive test analyses molecules in your breath that can show the presence of cancer at very early stages. It’s hoped that it will eventually be introduced to GP surgeries.

Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, who’s leading the trial at the Cancer Research UK Centre in Cambridge, says, ‘We urgently need to develop new tools, like this breath test, which could help to detect and diagnose cancer earlier, giving patients the best chance of surviving their disease.’

GAME-CHANGING BLOOD TEST

A blood test that could potentially spot 50 different types of cancer before symptoms start is currently being piloted by the NHS.

The Galleria test picks up molecular changes linked to many cancer types which are tricky to diagnose early – such as ovarian, oesophageal, head and neck and some blood cancers. It’s being tested initially on 165,000 patients and will be rolled out across the whole NHS if it proves to be effective.

BREAST CANCER ADVANCES

A computer program which calculates a woman’s lifetime risk of breast and ovarian cancer based on their family history has been developed. BOADICEA, which stands for the Breast and Ovarian Analysis of Disease Incidence and Carrier Estimation Algorithm, is at an early stage of development by scientists at Cambridge University and may become available to all women through the NHS if it’s deemed viable. The program also calculates your probability of carrying the BRCA1 or 2 breast-cancer genes.

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