Irish scientists develop cheap blood test for bowel cancer

Irish scientists are developing a new €25 blood test for bowel cancer which could save thousands of lives by spotting the disease at the earliest opportunity.

The test will overcome the drawbacks of existing tests and prevent unnecessary and expensive colonoscopies for people without the disease, say Dublin City University researchers and Irish biotech firm Randox.

Because the check is non-invasive, they hope it will encourage more people to come forward for testing. The product could be available for widespread use by the end of 2016.

The test picks up on antibodies in the blood produced as the body reacts to the onset of bowel cancer.

Accurate

The researchers say identification of these biomarkers will allow for a test that is more sensitive and accurate than existing screening.

Each year almost 2,500 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer, of which 1,000 die from the disease. This makes bowel cancer the second most common cause of cancer death in Ireland. To address this, a nationwide Bowel Screen initiative has been rolled out to check those between the ages of 60-69 thought to be at high risk. This involves testing traces of blood in stool samples. However, the nature of the test has contributed to an uptake which is less than half of those invited to provide a sample.

“The aim of this new test is to find the cancer at the earliest possible stage, when it is easier to treat,” says Prof Richard O’Kennedy of DCU’s biomedical diagnostics institute.