Healthy Breasts For Every Woman

Scientists have developed a simple blood test that can detect breast cancer significantly earlier then standard mammograms.

Known as the Diagenic BCtect test, the new method looks for chemical markers in blood that has flowed through a tumour and is capable of detecting a growth the size of a seed - this is three times smaller than what is likely to be noticed in an X-ray.

“This test will be particularly useful for younger women.  They tend to have denser breast material which mammograms cannot easily penetrate,” Dr James Mackay, an oncologist at London University, told The Daily Mail.

The test is currently being evaluated by Nice and, if the trials are successful, could be available on the NHS within five years.

Nikki Mattei