What’s the “scariest” word in the English language? Many people will agree it’s “cancer.”
Heart and circulatory diseases are the “biggest killers,” but the second-biggest killer — cancer — strikes more fear in many patients.
One key to defeating cancer is early detection, so that a variety of treatments may have the prospect of beating cancer, or at least preventing premature cancer deaths.
So it is certainly good news that scientists in Boston have announced a promising test that can give doctors an “early start” in fighting cancer, potentially prolonging life.
The news is that there is a blood test so sensitive it can detect a single cancer cell among a billion healthy cells, so treatment may be properly administered and gauged early on, with possibly lifesaving results.
The test reportedly is simple, and it is hoped that it can improve treatment of cancers as varied as breast, prostate, colon and lung.
“This is like a liquid biopsy,” Dr. Daniel Haber, chief of the cancer center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told The Associated Press.
If cancer is detected in its early stages, there are several things medical science can do, with good prospects.
Progress in fighting cancer is certainly a “good news” way to start 2011. We can hardly wait for more good news as this encouraging research continues.