By IANS
London : A new urine test may help doctors detect early signs of bowel cancer.
The test, expected to be available within a few years, gives instant results, the online edition of Daily Mail reported.
The current test for bowel cancer looks for blood in the stool, one of the main indicators of cancerous and pre-cancerous changes.
The new test, developed by researchers from Britain’s Open University, looks for abnormal pieces of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which contains the genetic information of a person, and come from damaged bowel cells.
These genetic materials, known as DNA adducts, appear in the body at the start of the process of cancer development.
Bowel cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, occurs anywhere in the large intestine or rectum. If it is caught early, before it has spread to other sites such as the liver, the chances of a cure are as high as 80 percent.