A British doctor has found a new way to detect early lung cancer through blood analysis, and is expected to help reduce deaths from the disease, which kills thousands of people around the world every year, according to the British newspaper Telegraph.
The new discovery of British physician Jeffrey Hamilton-Fairley is based on blood analysis for early detection of lung cancer, and has been successfully tested on 12 thousand and 200 people who are more vulnerable to the disease in Scotland.
The analysis the doctor has found in a study is less expensive than a CT scan (which enables early detection of lung cancer as well), making it accessible to broader segments of society.
The study has achieved its primary goal of reducing the number of cases of cancer diagnosed in advanced stages of the disease by 35%.
According to the study data, there was a 22% reduction in mortality among patients who participated in the study during the first two years, a short time compared to a similar study of CT scan of lung cancer in the United States took seven years to reach similar results, according to the newspaper.
"The significance of the new discovery is that it will enable us to detect lung cancer in many people who are currently dying of the disease," Hamilton told the paper.
He added that reducing the number of cases of cancer diagnosed in advanced stages of the disease by 35% through early detection is a great success for the study.
Studies show that lung cancer kills about 35,000 people annually in the UK alone, according to the paper.