For those who have searched for how to detect breast cancer, you'll be pleased to know that a simple blood test might become available to diagnose breast cancers at its earliest and most treatable stages, according to Voice Of America News.
The new way to detect breast cancer has brought on hopes that a woman will be able to spot the disease before the patient develops a lump, according to the U.K.'s The Daily Mail.
"Prevention is better than cure," stated researcher Fiona Larner.
She added, "There is a survival rate of about 80 percent for breast cancer but the earlier you can detect it, the more chance you have of treating it. There are drugs out there that can cure breast cancer or give patients a better timeline. If you can detect it earlier, you can give more women a better chance of survival."
Researchers at Britain's Oxford University reportedly found that breast tumors absorb a "light" form of zinc, which means that a "heavy" form of metal might be detectable in higher concentrations in the blood of people who are in the early stages of breast cancer.
According to Larner, although it's been known for more than 10 years that there are high concentrations of zinc in cancerous breast tumors, the molecular mechanism that cause this have reportedly not been known.
The new way to detect breast cancer might even be available within the next five years as the techniques used by scientists to detect differences in zinc isotopes in the presence of cancer are extremely sensitive.
Women who have inherited genes that can put them at a higher risk of breast cancer are reportedly likely to be the first to benefit from the blood test. Ten years from now, the blood test could reportedly be used to screen all women for early signs of great cancer, the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Metallomics reported.