A group of researchers have developed a new test that it claims to be 100 percent accurate in predicting if a person will develop cancer 13 years before the actual disease would strike.
After discovering a small but significant change in the body that occurs over a decade prior to the diagnosis of cancer, researchers at Harvard and Northwestern University were able to see a pattern that helped them come up with the test to determine if a person has higher chances of having cancer, Maine News reported.
The study revolves around the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that check DNA damage. It was observed that the caps, called telomeres, were more damaged in people that end up developing cancer.
These telomeres were much shorter compared to the normal size of the caps and got shorter until about four years before the cancer developed. Once this happened, the telemores suddenly stopped shrinking, Northwestern University explained in an online release.
The team further explained that telomeres shorten every time a cell divides. Hence, the older a person is, the shorter the telomeres. Since cancer cells grow rapidly, the telomeres are expected to rapidly shorten as well. However, this is not what happens for cancer cells. Instead, cancer finds a way to stop the process of telomeres shortening about four years before the cancer fully develops.
Due to detection of this pattern, scientists are able to know when cancer cells are starting to hijack the cells of the body, which gives them the ability to predict the possible development of cancer before it even happens.
The research team published their results in the April 30 issue of the journal EBioMedicine.
