Britain pioneers AI-powered blood test to detect 12 early-stage cancers

The tool, which detects tumour growth by measuring microRNA activity, could save billions for health services around the world

A new AI-assisted blood test could eliminate the need for costly cancer procedures easing the burden on Britain's NHS. PA

Britain has announced funding for a promising AI-assisted blood test that can detect 12 different cancers at once with a near-perfect detection rate.

Researchers at the University of Southampton have expressed their hopes over the multicancer diagnostic test, called miONCO, which measures microRNA biomarkers to identify cancer growth at early stages from a small sample of blood.

Machine learning is used to process the data, estimating the level of tumour growth as well as interpreting and predicting the cancer and its location. Early trials indicate it detects the condition at any stage, even before symptoms develop.

It is hoped the test will be available on the NHS within four or five years at an estimated cost of £120 ($150) each, potentially saving millions of lives and greatly reducing the need for unnecessary testing and invasive biopsies.

MicroRNA, or MiRNA, are small molecules in our cells that help to regulate gene activity. They bind to mRNA and can influence what kind of proteins they produce, potentially contributing to cancer growth.

The miONCO tool can test for 12 of the most common cancers – lung, breast, prostate, pancreatic, colorectal, ovarian, liver, brain, oesophageal, bladder, bone and soft tissue sarcoma – and gastric cancer.

The research is being led by Dr Andy Sharpanis and Prof Paul Skip who founded spin-off Xgenera to help improve cancer-screening technology.

The new test could detect cancer even before symptoms develop. Getty Images

Cancer care is around three times cheaper when it is discovered in the early stages, Xgenera figures suggest. The NHS is estimated to spend £800 million on cancer screening and an additional £91 million on false-positive follow-ups every year.

Despite advances in the field, almost half of all cancers are still diagnosed at a late stage and often provide a wrong result, giving false hope to patients who have been incorrectly told they are cancer free.

Patients who have their cancer detected early have a 93 per cent chance of survival, falling to only 10 per cent when the cancer is detected at a late stage.

Prof Skipp said the test has the potential to save many lives by catching cancer with a 99 per cent accuracy, making it a real "game-changer".

“Only three types of cancer currently have available screening tests and they can only test for one cancer at a time.

"These tests have a very high false-positive rate, where patients are incorrectly told they have cancer when in fact, they don’t. As well as being incredibly stressful for them, this leads to expensive follow-up testing to confirm the diagnosis.

“This new test focuses on delivering a more comprehensive test that is both faster and more affordable, with the ultimate goal of making it available to the NHS and other healthcare providers.

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On Sunday, the UK government announced it was funding cutting-edge cancer therapy in a boost to its medical sciences sector.

Xgenera was one of six companies selected for £11million funding through the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

Britain's Health Secretary Wes Streeting – himself a cancer survivor – has hailed the technology and said it could eliminate the need for months-long waits for tests and scans on the NHS.

On Monday, US citizens Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery of microRNA.

Their research was based around studying the make-up of a 1mm-long roundworm, known as C.elegans, which despite being tiny possesses cell types such as nerves and muscles found in larger, more complex animals.