New technique may be able to detect cancer at early stages

In the blood: According to associate professor of pathology Wang, if this new tool can be developed, it would be a very powerful technology in the fight against cancer. Photo: TNS

A new method for cancer detection, ‘liquid biopsy’, holds the promise of detecting the reappearance of cancer much earlier and more accurately than current methods.

In the next year or two, doctors will begin routinely monitoring cancer using a potentially revolutionary technique that searches for a genetic signature in a blood sample, according to experts in the field.