Development of blood test for detecting 13 kinds of cancer to begin

TOKYO. KAZINFORM A group composed of the National Cancer Center, private companies and universities in Japan said Monday it will begin a five-year project to enable the detection of 13 kinds of cancer by taking a blood sample.

The 7.9 billion yen project led by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, an independent administrative agency known as NEDO, is aimed at enabling early stage cancer detection through a simple blood test. The envisioned blood test is expected to help diagnose stomach, esophagus, lung, liver, biliary tract, pancreas, colon, ovary, prostate, bladder and breast cancers as well as sarcoma and glial tumor, Kyodo reports.