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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

A blood test finds deadly cancers before symptoms start

A DNA-based test pinpoints the tissue of origin for almost all sampled cancers.
Ball-shaped cells with fuzzy surfaces in red and green.

Cells of pancreatic cancer, which can be detected early in its development by analysing chemical changes in a person’s DNA. Image is artificially coloured. Credit: Anne Weston/Francis Crick Institute/SPL

By the time a person notices the first symptoms of cancer, the disease has often spread too far to be treated successfully. But that could change, thanks to a blood test that can detect more than 50 types of cancer, often at an early stage.

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Nature 580, 169 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00959-9

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