Can a Single Blood Test Detect Every Cancer?
This seems unreal. Could a simple and inexpensive blood test detect any cancer anywhere in the body, and do so long before any other diagnostic procedure can find it?
It seems that the answer to this question is, quite possibly, yes. The test in question is known as the AMAS test and you can read about it at www.amascancertest.com.
It was developed and extensively researched in the 1990’s and has recently been approved by the FDA. As a result, it should be covered by insurance and can be ordered by any doctor anywhere in the country.
According to the literature, this test has a very low rate of false positives and false negatives, and is so sensitive that it can detect the presence of cancer even a year or longer before it can be identified by any other diagnostic means.
However, there is one major limitation. The AMAS test does not look for a protein that is indicative of a certain cancer, but rather for an antibody that is not specific to any type of cancer but is evidence that the body is fighting against some form of cancer. As cancers grow, they inhibit the immune system from fighting against them and, as a result, this test becomes unreliable in advanced cancers and recurrences. Since many cancers are first detected in advanced stages, this test cannot be used as a replacement for other diagnostic approaches and can only be seen as an additional early warning.
So why haven’t you heard more about this test? Maybe because it’s very new and new ideas take a while to receive widespread acceptance.