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Israeli researchers have developed a low-cost blood test capable of detecting most cases of advanced lung cancer with more than 93 per cent accuracy, raising hopes of a simpler way to diagnose one of the world’s deadliest cancers. The test, developed by scientists at Tel Aviv University in collaboration with an Israeli medical diagnostics company and doctors at Bnai Zion and Sheba medical centres, costs around $60 (£45) and does not require expensive DNA sequencing.
In a peer-reviewed study involving 103 people, it identified 93.1 per cent of stage-two-to-four lung cancers and correctly ruled out the disease in 90.3 per cent of healthy participants.
The technology examines fragments of DNA circulating in the bloodstream. Researchers attach fluorescent markers to chemical changes associated with cancer before placing the DNA on a specially developed glass chip.
The resulting pattern of light acts as a biological “fingerprint” of the tumour.
“It’s just a blood test, and it’s very cheap. It doesn’t cost thousands of shekels,” said Professor Yuval Ebenstein of Tel Aviv University, who led the technological development.
Dr Abed Agbarya, director of oncology at Bnai Zion Medical Center and the study’s lead author, said earlier diagnosis could dramatically improve patients’ prospects.
“Most people arrive in the last stages of the disease,” he said. “If we can discover the disease in its early stages, we can go to surgery. We can go to a full cure.”
Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer deaths, killing an estimated 1.8 million people annually. Around 2,000 Israelis die from the disease each year.
The test remains experimental and is not yet approved for routine clinical use. A larger trial is now under way at hospitals in Israel and Europe and is expected to conclude by mid-2027.
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