Telomere (Photo : YouTube/Kent Zilliox )
Researchers at the Harvard University and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have developed a new 100% accurate test that can predict cancer up to 13 years in advance, Tech Times reported.
Scientists found that telomeres, protective caps found at the ends of chromosomes that protect them from damage, age faster on future cancer patients compared to healthy people.
Telomeres get shorter with age, leading to DNA damage and higher chance of age-related diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, according to Daily Mail Online. Shorter than average telomeres are observed as a sign of premature death and poor health.
In the study, researchers took several measurements of telomeres across a 13-year period in 792 individuals. About 135 subjects were ultimately diagnosed with cancer, including prostate, skin, lung and leukemia cancer.
At first, researchers found that telomeres aged much quicker in individuals who were developing, but not yet detected with cancer. Telomeres in indiviuals developing cancer looked 15 years older than those of individuals who were not developing cancer.
However, researchers then discovered that the accelerated process of aging stopped three to four years prior to the detection of cancer.
Dr Lifang Hou, the lead author of the study, said that understanding this pattern of growth of telomeres may mean that it can be a predictive biomarker for the deadly disease. They found that cancer has hijacked the telomere shortening to develop in the body.
Hou further said that because they observed a strong relationship in the pattern across a wide array of cancers, with the correct testing these procedures could be used ultimately to identify a wide array of cancers.
