Researchers found chemical changes in blood DNA that separated people at higher and lower risk of prostate and breast cancer years before diagnosis. For prostate cancer, the signal appeared 5 to 8 years before diagnosis, according to a study published in Cell Genomics.
The study was small and early. It used stored blood from 491 people in Canada, and the researchers describe the approach as a way to estimate risk, not to diagnose cancer. No test based on this work is available to patients.
