December 5, 2003	Friday	Shawwal 10, 1424

OSLO, Dec 4: A simple blood test could in the future be used to detect breast cancer, a disease that affects 10 per cent of women in the Western world, a Norwegian group developing the method said on Thursday.

“When you get a disease, it’s not only the primary site of the disease that responds. There are responses in other parts of the body as well. Our method aims at detecting those responses,” said Anders Loenneborg, the head of the DiaGenic research company said.

“Cancer provokes a different activity of genes in the blood. We are trying to find a pattern of gene activity that is characteristic to breast cancer,” he added.

Loenneborg, whose firm employs just nine people, said his group had already managed to detect a “pattern” of 49 genes found in women with breast cancer where the illness had been detected by traditional methods, such as mammography and ultrasound.

DiaGenic is currently researching whether this pattern is specific to breast cancer or applies to other kinds of cancer or illnesses.

If their results prove conclusive, the detection method could be put on the market in two years, “if we have all the optimal conditions”, that is, if financing and opportunities permit, Loenneborg said.

He said he was already in negotiations with several market players. The biggest advantage of the blood test method is that it provides the possibility of early detection.

“These changes in the gene activity are the first changes that take place. So you can detect the cancer at a very early stage,” Loenneborg said.—AFP