New cancer test

Better Nutrition, July, 2004

New cancer test: A simple feces specimen may soon be used to detect colorectal cancer. Scientists have long sought telltale signs of cancer that would eliminate the need for invasive tests. A paper in The Lancet reports that particular changes to a specific gene in stool samples can help pinpoint this cancer.

And another study in the same journal suggests that blood tests may one day detect higher levels of certain hormones known to be elevated when cancer is present.