Simple, painless hair test detects breast cancer

May 13 2008

A test developed by Australian scientists which promises to be able to pick up breast cancer from a hair sample, could be commercially available later this year.

The test which has been developed by the technology company Fermiscan is an X-ray diffraction test able to detect structural changes in hair collagen with the use of a synchrotron.

Fermiscan says in preliminary trials in 2,000 women, the test was found to have an overall predictive accuracy of 69% for breast cancer.

According to the company the accuracy of the test increased to 75% when hair samples affected by treatments such as perming and dyeing were excluded.

The trial involved women who had been referred to radiologists by their GP for a mammogram.

The test correctly diagnosed almost 1,500 women as negative for breast cancer and 20 patients correctly as positive for breast cancer and the developers say this highlights the potential value of the test in conjunction with current screening methods.

The company says the hair test is non-invasive and suitable for women for all ages and it's accuracy compares favorably to other screening methods currently available in Australia.

In the trial 13 patients found to be positive for breast cancer by a mammogram and biopsy were missed by the Fermiscan test and was possibly due to damage to hair from treatments not identified by fluorescence screening and/or biological variation.

Perming, dyeing and straightening are thought to affect the accuracy of the test but these are overcome in most cases by using new growth of the hair which usually takes about 4 weeks.

The test promises women another less painful and invasive option for the detection of early breast cancer.

Fermiscan’s test is based on technology developed and licensed from Veronica James, a physics professor at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Professor James claimed to be able to detect an abnormality in the hair of women with breast cancer.

Since then a number of other research groups, one of which Professor James was involved with, have tried and failed to reproduce her results.

Should the Fermiscan test prove to be successful it could enter a financially lucrative market.

The Fermiscan test is expected to cost the consumer around $200 per sample and will take just 24 hours to complete, including the time it takes to send the sample to a laboratory in the States where Fermiscan has its tests done.

Fermiscan managing director David Young says the success rate is expected to significantly improve as women prepare for it by ensuring they have undamaged new growth of hair to test.

He says the test will be further refined in a pilot trial involving the Ashford Cancer Centre in Adelaide and hospitals in Italy and Japan.

The National Breast Cancer Foundation has welcomed the test and says it potentially offers improved survival for women of all ages.