A new blood test could accurately predict future breast cancer in a patient.
Researchers hope this groundbreaking new method will lead to better prevention methods and earlier detection for the common and dangerous cancer, the University of Copenhagen reported.
"The method is better than mammography, which can only be used when the disease has already occurred. It is not perfect, but it is truly amazing that we can predict breast cancer years into the future," said Rasmus Bro, a professor of chemometrics in the Department of Food Science at University of Copenhagen.
The researchers used food science in the way that it is used for the control of complex industrial processes to develop the promising test. The principle involves analyzing large amounts of biological data in a "holistic and explorative" way. This allowed the team to look at all compounds in a blood sample, instead of a single biomarker in relation to a specific disease as is often done in modern medicine. The research was based on a population of 57,000 people over the course of two decades.
"When a huge amount of relevant measurements from many individuals is used to assess health risks - here breast cancer - it creates very high quality information. The more measurements our analyses contain, the better the model handles complex problems," Bro said.
The metabolic blood profile (levels of varying compounds in the blood) changes when one is in a pre-cancer state. Mammography can detect newly developing breast cancer with a sensitivity of about 75 percent, the metabolic blood profile could predict a woman's risk of developing breast cancer within the next two to five years with a sensitivity of 80 percent.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Metabolism.
