Scientists develop new test for liver cancer

2002落叶

LONDON (Reuters) - A simple blood test can detect
early stage liver cancer and more accurately diagnose
a disease that is a major killer in Asia and Africa,
researchers said on Wednesday.

Current tests include biopsies, imaging and the
so-called AFP test in which doctors can detect
malignant tumors based on the concentration of
particular substances -- called markers -- in the
blood.

But those methods are not as sensitive as the new test
that can also indicate whether a tumor is in the early
or latter stages and offers patients a better chance
at survival, said Chitty Chen, a researcher at the
Flanders Institute for Biotechnology and Ghent
University in Belgium, who led the study.

"When you have liver cancer you do not have symptoms
in the early stages," Chen said in a telephone
interview. "Once you have symptoms your liver
dysfunctions and it is often too late for treatment."

Liver cancer kills nearly 700,000 people each year,
mainly in Africa and Asia which have a high prevalence
of hepatitis infections that cause the disease.

In the study, published in the journal Hepatology, the
researchers developed a simple blood test to detect
changes in sugars attached to proteins that occur in
liver cancer, Chen said.

The researchers, who included scientists from Beijing
and Shanghai Universities in China, also showed they
could determine the size of the tumor based on the
amount of two particular sugar groups that appeared in
the proteins, she said.

When used in conjunction with the AFP test, the new
method was more accurate and represents a more
powerful tool to better detect liver cancer and save
lives by getting patients earlier treatment, she
added.

"If you use them together, you increase the
effectiveness of the test," Chen said. "The best is to
use them together."

IC

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