In response to research, published in Scientific Reports*, about detecting breast cancer from fingertip smears, Dr Kotryna Temcinaite, senior research communications manager at Breast Cancer Now, said:
“Detecting breast cancer early is crucial as the sooner it’s diagnosed the better the chance of treatment being successful. This innovative early-stage study has demonstrated that, in principle, there may be a quicker and easier way to spot breast cancer and potentially help monitor its progression. We look forward to further research involving a much larger number of women to better understand whether this interesting new method for detecting breast cancer could benefit people in the future. Right now, breast screening is a key tool for detecting the disease early. With the worrying news that more than one million women missed out on screening last year, the government must take urgent action to recover breast cancer screening standards and set out a concrete plan to tackle the programme’s underlying issues.”
ENDS
*Non-invasive screening of breast cancer from fingertip smears—a proof of concept study