Turns out, a rare cancer known as myeloma could be caught early using simple blood tests.
According to a new study, myeloma could lead to GPs using simple blood tests to improve early diagnosis. The study investigated the best combination of blood tests that could be used to diagnose myeloma in GP practices.
The research was a collaboration between the University of Oxford, the University of Exeter and Chiddenbrook Surgery, Crediton, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Researchers investigated how useful a number of different measures were for indicating the presence of the disease, and suggested what combinations of these tests were sufficient to rule out the disease, and to diagnose it, saving the patient from the worry of specialist referral.
Principal investigator on the study, Professor Willie Hamilton said, “We report a simple way a GP can check patients presenting symptoms such as back, rib and chest pain, or recurrent chest infections, and determine whether they have myeloma or not.” (ANI)
