Painful and intrusive breast cancer tests could soon be a thing of the past, replaced with a simple, painless home test kit, a new study reveals.
The new tests, based on research by Professor Simona Francese, could tell if a person is suffering from the disease from something as simple as a fingerprint.
Professor Francese has discovered that the sweat on a person's finger can indicate the presence of breast cancer with 98 percent accuracy.
The professor discovered a telltale protein in the sweat after working with police over the last 15 years developing techniques to gather information from fingerprints at crime scenes.
Professor Francese told The Sunday Times: 'Looking at molecules that tell us the sex of the individual we bumped into some molecules — small proteins and peptides — that are also indicated as potential biomarkers of breast cancer.'
By just touching their fingertips to a sample plate, a study sample of 15 women showed that the simple method could detect not just the presence of the disease but its severity.
Following larger trials, the process could be set to replace mammograms, according to the team of researchers from Sheffield Hallam University who worked with Professor Francese.
The current mammogram procedure, which involves compressing the breast between two plates before taking an x-ray is an uncomfortable necessity for millions of women.
The new method offers the possibility of patients taking the test from their own homes by smudging their fingertips onto a collection plate, instead of travelling to a hospital for a 20 minute mammogram appointment.
Professor Lynda Wyld, a lecturer and a cancer surgeon, who also worked on the study, said: “the data that we have so far is very promising. If it's validated and shown to work in further trials, it has huge potential.”
Currently the UK breast screening programme has the longest gaps between screens in the world, every three years.
Recent studies have shown that more frequent screenings could catch early onset or pre-cancerous lesions and save lives.
According to Breast Cancer Now, around 55,000 women and 370 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK.
