Chinese scientists invent test to detect cancer with one drop of blood

A new test has been invented by Chinese scientists which can diagnose multiple kinds of cancer by analysing just a drop of human blood. Researchers at Tsinghua University's School of Life Sciences developed the reagent (mixture) test kit of Hsp90, a protein for clinical use.

Earlier, a sort of heat shock proteins (HSP), named Hsp90a, was identified by scientists which exists in human bodies and can be used as a cancer biomarker.

Researcher Luo Yongzhang and his team produced anartificial Hsp90a protein that gains structural stability by regrouping proteins. State-run CGTN TV reported that it means that now they can "create" the protein, in any quantity, and at any time they wish to.

The test kit was used in clinical trials involving 2,347 patients at eight hospitals in China. The report further said that it was the first clinical trial in the world to test if the protein could be a useful tumour biomarker for lung cancer, and it succeeded.

The kit has now been certified to enter the Chinese and European markets, 24 years after Hsp90 a protein was discovered. Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the ability to invade or spread to other partsof the body.

In 2015, about 90.5 million people had cancer in the world, with roughly 14.1 million new cases occurring eachyear. About 8.8 million human deaths, or 15.7 per cent of all deaths in the world, are caused by cancer.

In China alone, 4.29 million people were diagnosed with cancer in 2015, and 2.8 million of them died in that year.