Blood test

Newly-identified cancer cell fingerprints in the blood could one day help doctors diagnose a range of children’s cancers faster and more accurately.

A simple blood test could pinpoint which children are unlikely to respond to treatment for a particularly aggressive form of neuroblastoma

Scientists have developed a new way of looking at how tumours evolve in real-time and develop drug resistance by tracking changes in blood.

A genetic pattern could predict how aggressive prostate cancer is before treatment, and whether the disease will come back in men who have already been treated, according to research published in the Lancet Oncology*.

A prostate antigen level test at age 60 appears to provide an indication of a man’s lifetime risk of being diagnosed and dying from prostate cancer.

Scientists have pinpointed key changes to the telomeres in the cells of leukaemia patients which could play a crucial role in the earliest stages of the disease, according to research published online in the journal Blood.

Doctors should warn men that prostate cancer testing may lead to anxiety and distress, say Cancer Research UK experts.

CANCER RESEARCH UK scientists have shown that screening for prostate cancer using prostate specific antigen (PSA) would lead to a substantial number of tumours diagnosed at an earlier and more treatable stage. However, there would be likely cases of overdiagnosed prostate cancer according to a study published in the British Journal of Cancer today.

CANCER RESEARCH UK-funded scientists have identified a new molecular marker in blood which could indicate how patients with a type of lung cancer will respond to treatment, according to research published in Clinical Cancer Research*.

Male relatives of prostate cancer patients need more information in order to help them understand the possible familial risk of the disease, and to decide whether or not to have a PSA test, according to research published in the British Journal of Cancer today (21 February 2006).