Personal Health

Blood test instead of mammography: New method detects Tumor-messenger substances in the blood

In addition to other diagnostic imaging techniques mammography is a method for the early detection of breast cancer, the most common cancer in women. Physicians at the University women’s clinic in Heidelberg have now a more marketable method for better cancer detection developed with the help of a blood test. On the basis of 15 different biomarkers, as well as smaller tumors in the blood of women with breast cancer is undetectable. To son, Executive Medical Director of the clinic and the head of the project Christof: “We are investigating messengers that are emanating from the Tumor that is growing, and the released into the blood. And it’s not single parameters, but a variety of parameters.” The blood-based method that is constantly evolving, should be significantly less burdensome for women, because it is neither painful, nor with exposure to radiation. The Test can, in principle, be used in women of all age groups. Of particular interest, he was, for example, for young women, for those with a high family risk for breast cancer. The blood test by the end of this year in the clinical application. The hit rate was comparable to that of a mammogram, the Doctors. However, it is not a competing but a complementary method.