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Breast cancer accounts for millions of deaths each year. A recent study showed the number of cancer cases among the under-50s around the world appears to have risen sharply in the past 30 years.

Research published in BMJ Oncology found there had been 3.26 million cases in 2019 - 79% more than in 1990.
So anything that could reduce the cost and length of time it takes to screen and accurately detect the illness would be highly important work - reducing the need for costly mammograms, ultrasounds and biopsies.

Now scientists say they have developed a simple saliva test that can accurately signal who has the cancer and who does not.

It may take a long while to get the test to market but they say initial results are highly promising, as Newsday heard from one of those involved in the research, Professor Josephine Esquivel-Upshaw, at the University of Florida.

"With our sensor we detect if you have breast cancer by the proteins in your saliva. It has been done before but the method to detect it is very expensive and not that sensitive. Even with the small sample size we have been able to tell the difference between healthy individuals and individuals with breast cancer."

(Pic: Woman undergoes mammogram screening; Credit: Reuters)

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