The Japanese company Toshiba has developed a system that can detect cancer from a single drop of blood. Endowed with a more than interesting precision, this device could well be deployed one day in order to detect diseases earlier.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. In 2018, 9.6 million deaths have been counted and approximately 18 million new cases have been reported. The fact is that very often the first symptoms appear when the disease is already at a fairly advanced stage. This then leads to long and difficult to bear treatments for patients.
According to an article in the Japan Times of November 25, 2019, the Toshiba company is behind a system that could make it possible to detect cancer quite early. According to the company, the device needs a single drop of blood to detect the disease with 99% accuracy . As researcher Koji Hashimoto explains, the question of the cost of the test is also important. Indeed, this blood test costs only 20,000 Yen (about 166 euros).
You should know that the system is able to calculate the concentration of micro-RNA in the blood. These are small molecules present in all our cells but in greater quantities in cancer cells. According to Koji Hashimoto, 13 types of cancer can be detected in this way, including cancer of the pancreas, ovaries, liver, bladder or prostate. Obviously, it will be necessary to wait some time before seeing this kind of test become democratized. However, its relatively low cost would make it possible to integrate it into health checks . Thus, the disease could be detected early enough to avoid difficult treatment.
This research into early diagnosis, other projects are interested in it. A few months ago, IBM unveiled new tools based on artificial intelligence in order to fight cancer. These were algorithms whose mission was to search for information, develop drugs and predict the evolution of the disease.
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