Research: Fully-body scan a cancer game-changer

Of an estimated 10,000 Australians who have Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a genetic time bomb that makes them virtually certain to develop a lethal cancer in just about any organ, half will do so by the age of 30. But one in 10 seemingly healthy people with LFS had undiagnosed cancers picked up by full-body MRIs during the metadata study involving more than 500 patients from Australia, the US, Britain, Brazil, Canada and The Netherlands. The results will be published today by the joint Australian-US research team in the American Medical Association journal JAMA Oncology. The study’s Australian leader, David Thomas of Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, said full-body MRIs had been available for a decade but “really hadn’t found a niche”. The LFS study had the potential to change that, with its effectiveness in detecting non-symptomatic cancer astonishing the researchers.

The Australian, 04/08/2017, Page 7

#Research #Cancer #Diagnosis