Jab test for skin cancer devised

AUSTRALIAN researchers have developed a “world-first” blood test to detect melanoma.

Lead researcher Pauline Zaenker, of Edith Cowan University’s Melanoma Research Group, described the test as an “exciting” potential screening tool because it could pick up melanoma in the very early stages when it was still treatable.

“Patients who have their melanoma detected in its early stage have a five-year survival rate between 90 and 99 per cent, whereas if it is not caught early and it spreads around the body, the five-year survival rate drops to less than 50 per cent,” she said.

Queensland has the highest rates of melanoma in the world with more than 3600 cases diagnosed and about 300 deaths from the skin cancer annually.

The West Australian researchers compared blood samples from 105 people with early-stage melanoma and 104 healthy volunteers.

They analysed more than 1600 different types of antibodies, identifying a combination of 10 that indicated the presence of melanoma in about 80 per cent of cases.

But one in five people with early-stage melanoma were missed and one in six positive tests were inaccurate.

Researchers said the test still needed to be validated in hundreds more melanoma patients, a process that will take at least three years, before it could be commercialised.

Cancer Council Australia chief executive Sanchia Aranda urged caution about the results of the study published today in the journal, Oncotarget.

“At the moment many melanomas are easily detected early through changes to new or existing spots or moles, so it’s important all Australians keep a close eye on their skin and see their doctor straight away if they notice anything unusual,” Professor Aranda said.