Innovative new blood tests could detect cancers early. When will they be ready?
The tests can detect multiple types of cancer before people even have symptoms, potentially saving many lives. But some experts caution that their efficacy is still not proven.
Identified with stage two pancreatic cancer as part of a trial for a new kind of blood test that screens for cancer, Jim Ford was surprised by the diagnosis. Unlike most people who find out that they have the disease, the 76-year- old retired car salesman had no symptoms and had been out golfing just a week before.
Pancreatic cancer is only rarely discovered so early. Once somebody has symptoms, Napoles says, survival rates can be as low as 3 percent and the disease is often untreatable. But she was able to completely remove Ford’s tumor, which was about the size of his thumb. Now a year after surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, Ford is cancer-free—illustrating the potential for a new generation
