The detection and treatment of solid cancers such as lung, breast, ovarian, colon, and prostate cancers could be on the verge of a major makeover, thanks to a new blood test developed at the University of Nottingham and spinoff company Oncimmune.

Early in a tumor's development, cancer cells produce antigens that trigger the body's immune system to release auto-antibodies in an attempt to fight them off. The body produces an abundance of these auto-antibodies to win the battle--more than the tumor does antigens, making the auto-antibodies easier to detect.

The test measures a panel of auto-antibodies in a blood sample to determine the likelihood of a tumor being present. In clinical trials, it has helped detect cancer as many as five years earlier than current mammography and CT scans.

Based on the early work of John Robertson, a renowned breast cancer specialist and University of Nottingham professor who launched Oncimmune in 2003, the company's first blood test to hit the market--called EarlyCDT-Lung--is to be released in the U.S. later this month and in the U.K. in early 2011.

"We believe this test, along with the others we will launch in the next few years, will lead to a better prognosis for a significant number of cancer sufferers," says Geoffrey Hamilton-Fairley, Oncimmune's executive chairman, in a news release.

The research first launched at Nottingham analyzed blood samples from patients with breast cancer and a group of high-risk women in for an annual mammography. Robertson identified not only the signal in the blood of those women who developed breast cancer, but he also found that his prototype test could have detected cancer in more than half the patients up to four years before they were eventually diagnosed.

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