A single blood test detects cancers with up to 98 percent accuracy in patients without any symptoms, new research suggests.

The assessment, known as CancerSEEK, picks up on DNA shed by mutating cells into the blood.

The test can diagnose at least eight different types of cancer from ovarian to breast.

Although the test's accuracy varies according to the type of cancer, it averages at around 70 percent, which is better than any available early-diagnosis method, according to the researchers.

It is also able to detect the origins in around 80 percent of cases, the study found.

If given as part of a routine-screening programme, the researchers believe the test could catch tumors early, maximizing patients' chances of surviving.

Study author Professor Bert Vogelstein from John Hopkins University, said: 'This test represents the next step in changing the focus of cancer research from late-stage disease to early disease, which I believe will be critical to reducing cancer deaths in the long term.'

In the US, around 39 percent of adults will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives.

A blood test detects cancers with up to 98 percent accuracy in patients without any symptoms

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'Critical to reducing cancer deaths'

The researchers analyzed blood samples from 1,005 cancer patients suffering from early-stage ovarian, liver, stomach, pancreatic, esophageal, colorectum, lung or breast forms of the disease.

None of the participants' cancers appeared to have spread.

Results reveal CancerSEEK accurately detects more than 90 percent of ovarian and liver cancers.

It also reliably picks up on ovarian, stomach, pancreatic and esophageal cancers in at least 69 percent of cases. These forms of the disease are typically difficult to detect.

CancerSEEK only wrongly detects tumors in healthy people less than one percent of the time.

Professor Vogelstein said: 'This test represents the next step in changing the focus of cancer research from late-stage disease to early disease, which I believe will be critical to reducing cancer deaths in the long term.'

If available, the test is estimated to cost less than $500 per batch, which is in line with other cancer detectors, such as colonoscopies, and was described by Dr Anirban Maitra from the Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, as 'a very attractive number'.

Dr Maitra, who was not involved in the study, added, however, cancer-like proteins can be shed in patients with inflammatory diseases, such as arthritis, and therefore the test may be less accurate when given to sufferers of other conditions.

Yet, lead author Dr Nickolas Papadopoulos argued: 'A test does not have to be perfect to be useful.'

The test, known as CancerSEEK, picks up on DNA shed by mutating cells into the blood (stock)

'Exciting progress'

The scientists plan to conduct a five-year study of up to 50,000 women to assess CancerSEEK's accuracy in people who have seemingly never had cancer.

It is still unclear whether the test will pick up small tumors that may never grow large enough to cause symptoms, however, Dr Papadopoulos added: 'The issue is not overdiagnosis, but overtreatment,'

Although it is uncertain when CancerSEEK may become available for real-life use, cancer researcher Nitzan Rosenfeld, from the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the study, said: 'If people expect to suddenly catch all cancers, they'll be disappointed.

'This is exciting progress but evaluating it in the real world will be a long process.

The findings were published in the journal Science.