With the use of machine learning, doctors have achieved great success in diagnosing cancer easily. For this, scientists have prepared a special device which will catch cancer within minutes. The biggest feature of this machine is that results can be obtained with the help of dried blood spots instead of liquid blood.
The specialty of this device is that it can differentiate between gastric and colon cancer patients and patients without cancer. Researchers believe that 82 to 100 percent of cancer cases can be detected by testing certain chemicals in the blood. The new tool uses machine learning to analyze byproducts of metabolites in blood samples, Live Science reports. Metabolites are found in the liquid part of the blood called serum.
These metabolites act as biomarkers that can potentially identify the presence of cancer in the body. The Chinese scientists who developed this test have made some important findings that for some of the most deadly cancers in the world, there is no blood test that can accurately predict the disease. Doctors usually use imaging or surgery techniques to screen for cancer. Whereas this new type of test will require less than 0.05 ml of blood.
Dr. Chuan Kuang, Associate Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, believes that dried blood is easier to collect, preserve and transport than liquid blood. Testing can be done with very low cost equipment. This test may prove to be more accurate if used in cancer screening programs. As cancer incidence continues to increase in the future, rapid cancer detection methods will prove to be very important.