Saliva Saving Boobs

Your boobs can kill you. In fact, only in Britain, annually over 44,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and over 12,000 die because of it. This is the leading cancer amongst women in developed countries.

Now, a simple and cheap ($ 20) saliva test could detect breast cancer in early stages by... visiting the dentist! Only two or three drops of saliva would be enough, states the research published in the journal "Cancer Investigation".

"It could prove invaluable in picking up the disease in its earliest stages, when it easiest to treat", said co-author Dr Charles Streckfus, from the University of Texas Dental Branch, in Houston.

The test would particularly be important in finding tumors that develop during the three-year gap between the mammograms routinely made by women over 50. Still, younger women make 20 % of the breast cancers, and this would be beneficial for them too, especially those who have already experienced the disease and the tumor could grow back.

The research team investigated the saliva of 30 women, 30 % of whom had successfully overcome breast cancer, and detected 49 proteins whose levels were strongly connected to subjects' breast health. The patterns were clearly distinct between healthy women and those having breast tumors. Moreover, the test can differentiate between benign and malignant tumors.

The technology is compacted into a kit as large as a home pregnancy test. The subjects would have to chew gum to increase salivation, then spit it onto the test stick, which would deliver a result in several minutes, as antibodies (similarly to a pregnancy testing kit) have an instant reaction.

"Mammography is an outstanding technique and people should continue to get mammograms. This could be something women could use in between mammograms and if something looks suspicious, they could jump on it. If you had this particular test sat side by side with mammography, it will take the worry out for women", said Streckfus.

The new anti breast cancer kit could be available in 5 years.

"Saliva is a non-invasive, quicker way for detection. This could be a wonderful gift to the women of the world", added Steckfus.

"There's a lot more work to be done to find out if this method could ever be used routinely", warned Henry Scowcroft, of Cancer Research UK.

A Norwegian team is working on a blood breast cancer test, while an American team is developing a blood test detecting Alzheimer's 6 years before subjects would display symptoms.