No more painful biopsies? How a new blood test will transform cancer detection in Hong Kong

Hong Kong researchers say they are developing a more affordable and less invasive method to confirm cancer, with the aim of having fewer patients undergo painful biopsies.

Professor Allen Chan and his team at the Chinese University of Hong Kong have spent years developing blood tests to detect cancer with a technique known as liquid biopsy, and they are now working on a new method that is based on fragmentomics. Calling it a next-generation method for cancer detection, the advanced blood test is said to be simpler and more accurate than the current PSA test, and would help determine whether a biopsy is necessary.