"UK researchers behind a potential universal liquid biopsy blood test for cancer detection have licensed the technology to an industrial partner to take it to market.  The research team believes that the test could be the first screening tool to rule in or rule out cancer in patients under suspicion of the disease alongside other traditional diagnostics methods.  The test was developed at the University of Bradford UK. It measures the damage to the DNA of white blood cells when subjected to different intensities of ultraviolet UV light revealing measurable differences in the cells susceptibility to further damage in patients with cancer.  The damage forms a comet tail of DNA pieces that are pulled towards the positive end of an electric field. The longer the comet tail the more DNA damage is present which correlates with the presence of cancer. In a  proof of concept study the Bradford researchers showed they could identify which samples were from patients with three different types of cancer  even those who had yet to be diagnosed  with  per cent success.  However in their two most recent clinical trials of the test involving over  blood samples from colorectal and prostate cancer patients and further breast and lung cancer samples that were available they were unable to distinguish those with cancer from healthy patients in  cases. To determine whether scoring more cells on the slides would explain this challenging subgroup lead researcher Professor Diana Anderson from the University of Bradford asked IMSTAR to reanalyse the inconclusive slides. The Bradford team had scored  cells per slide but the Pathfinder system is able to analyse up to  cells per slide and uses Artificial Intelligence concepts in its proprietary software.  Scoring a minimum of  cells per slide the IMSTAR Pathfinder system was able to separate all individuals of the cancer group from the healthy control group with confirmed statistical significance. These findings are published in FASEB BioAdvances journal httpsonlinelibrary.wiley.comdoiabs.fba..  Professor Anderson said This test is different from other universal cancer tests being developed because it is not looking for a specific biomarker or mutation. This is a generic test for cancer in an individual regardless of the underlying mechanism thats causing their cancer.  Im now convinced that if we used the powerful IMSTAR system to look at thousands of cells on all the slide samples in the trials we would see a significant increase in the overall predictability beyond the original  per cent of the original  study.  Parisbased company IMSTAR has now coupled the innovative technology developed at Bradford with their fullyautomated Pathfinder cell readeranalyser to create a powerful and robust test for early detection called TumorScan. Cofirst author Dr Mojgan Najafzadeh from the University of Bradford said We feel that weve taken it as far as we can in proving that the test works with high predictability for cancer outcome and IMSTAR are the right partners to improve it still further.  Dr Francoise Soussaline PhD DSc IMSTARs president said To bring a universal liquid biopsy blood test for cancer to market it must achieve a number of criteria including high sensitivity and specificity and be fully automated with high throughput for a medical routine use. In addition test results must be available in hrs and at affordable cost. We believe that the combination of Bradfords innovation and IMSTARs unique expertise has shown that TumorScan can achieve these requisites. IMSTARs vicepresident for medical applications Dr Michel Soussaline confirmed that the company will be working to automate the full test workflow further to take it to market."