A new international research project is trying to identify cancerous isotopic biomarkers in blood in a bid to create a new blood test that could help doctors identify breast cancer in patients.
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While the actual test could still be up to a decade away, a paper published in Scientific reports by researchers at Australian National University and the University of Nantes, France, has identified isotopes in tissue samples that could help determine healthy from cancerous tissue.
A blood test for breast cancer could be less invasive and cheaper than current techniques involving mammograms and biopsies, but could complement such techniques.
ANU researcher Professor Guillaume Tcherkez said the research was still several years away from clinical trials, but the tissue findings would help to focus their efforts to identify isotopes, or biomarkers, in blood cells that could be used to diagnose breast cancer.
The paper, published on Wednesday, revealed the presence of isotopes 13-C and 15-N in tissue biopsy samples from French cancer patients and healthy people, as well as different lines of cancer cells in the culture.
Prof. Tcherkez said the findings were the starting point and more work was needed to be done to find an "easily applicable biomarker" for blood, rather than tissue samples.
"Right now we don't know if those biomarkers are specific to breast cancer alone, but it seems there are some isotopic isolations specific to breast, lung and colon cancer," he said.
"Presently we're working on the blood part of it, as most of the results were concentrated on biopsies.
"So once we can set up analytical terms for blood, presumably in about one year, we should be able to tell if we can see something specific to breast cancer."
