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Past research has suggested that even very early–stage cancers produce recognizable signatures in the blood (“liquid biopsy”; NEJM JW Gen Med Feb 1 2019 and Nature 2018; 563:579). A team from Johns Hopkins evaluated a blood test that identifies specific alterations in cell-free DNA and protein tumor markers of presymptomatic cancers; participants were 10,000 women (age range, 65–75) without known cancer who were members of a large healthcare system. All patients in the study continued to receive standard cancer screening.
When a woman's initial liquid biopsy blood test was abnormal, a second confirmatory test was performed. Confirmed tests were followed by positron-emission tomography–computed tomography (PET-CT) with contrast, to identify t…