A new test to diagnose multiple cancers, miONCO, has been developed by University of Southampton scientists Dr Andy Shapanis and Professor Paul Skipp, making it possible to detect cancer symptoms before they develop.

Hailed as a ‘game-changer’, with the potential to save millions of lives, miONCO uses a panel of biomarkers and artificial intelligence to identify 12 cancers simultaneously, across any stage, from a sample using just 10 to 15 drops of blood. It tests for the most common types of cancer – lung, breast, prostate, pancreatic, colorectal, ovarian, liver, brain, oesophageal, bladder, bone and soft tissue sarcoma, and gastric cancer.

Cancer survival rates are just 10 per cent when cancer is diagnosed at a late stage, but as high as 90 per cent when diagnosed at an early stage.

Professor Skipp said: “This test has the potential to save many lives by catching cancers much earlier than currently possible, making it a real game-changer.

“Only three types of cancer currently have available screening tests, and they can only test for one cancer at a time. These tests have a very high false positive rate, where patients are incorrectly told they have cancer when in fact, they don’t. As well as being incredibly stressful for them, this leads to expensive follow-up testing to confirm the diagnosis.

“This new test focuses on delivering a more comprehensive test that is both faster and more affordable, with the ultimate goal of making it available to the NHS and other healthcare providers.”

Further work on the test will analyse 8,000 samples drawn from a diverse cohort, ensuring its efficacy across various genders, ethnicities, and

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