Blood test predicts future breast cancer risk

London

A blood test can predict the likelihood of a woman developing breast cancer within next two to five years with a sensitivity of 80 per cent, scientists say.

The blood test - a metabolic blood profile - could create a paradigm shift in early diagnosis of breast cancer as well as other diseases, researchers said.

"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 at the Department of Food Science in University of Copenhagen.

The study researchers analysed all compounds a blood sample contains instead of - as is often done in health and medical science - examining what a single biomarker means in relation to a specific disease.

A metabolic blood profile describes the amounts of all compounds (metabolites) in our blood.

The scientists measured participants' metabolic blood profiles for the study.

When someone is in a pre-cancer state, the pattern for how certain metabolites are processed apparently changes, researchers said.

While a mammography can detect newly developed breast cancer with a sensitivity of 75 per cent, the new metabolic blood profile is able to predict the likelihood of a woman developing breast cancer within the next two to five years with a sensitivity of 80 per cent.

The research was based on a population study of 57,000 people followed by the Danish Cancer Society over 20 years.

The participants were first examined in 1994-96, during which time their weight and other measurements were recorded and they answered a questionnaire. They also provided a blood sample that was stored in liquid nitrogen.

The scientists used the 20-year-old blood samples and other available data from 400 women who were healthy when they were first examined but who were diagnosed with breast cancer two to seven years after providing the first sample, and from 400 women who did not develop breast cancer.

The method was also used to test a different dataset of women examined in 1997. Predictions based on the new set of data matched the first dataset, which indicates the validity of the model, researchers said.

The study is published in the journal Metabolomics. PTI