This new, accurate and cheap saliva test to discover lung cancer in patients is quicker than blood tests. The ‘liquid biopsy’ test will takes less than 10 minutes to get a result.
According to Dailymail the scientist whose team developed the system, Professor David Wong of the University of California at Los Angeles, said: ‘If there is circulating signature of a tumour in a person blood or saliva, this test will find it.
‘We need less than one drop of saliva and we can turn the test around in 10 minutes. It can be done in a doctor’s office while you wait.
‘Early detection is crucial. Any time you gain in finding out that someone has a life-threatening cancer, the sooner the better.
‘With this capability, it can be implemented by the patient themselves in a home check, or dentist or pharmacy.’
He hoped the test, due to be tested in trials with lung cancer patients in China later this year, could be available in the UK by the end of the decade.
Eventually it could be used to diagnose a range of different cancers, said Wong, speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC.
The team came up with the test after discovering saliva contained fragments of the genetic messenger molecule RNA linked to cancer.
‘Down the road it might be possible to test for multiple cancers at the same time,’ said Wong.