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By Melissa Fleur Afshar
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A new blood test could help identify breast cancer at an early stage and reveal which patients face a greater risk of the disease returning, according to a recent study that tracked DNA signals released by tumors into the bloodstream.
The approach could eventually help doctors make more precise decisions around prevention and treatment, particularly for women whose cancer appears low risk. But Dr. Lucy Hooper, general practitioner and co-founder of Coyne Medical, told Newsweek that larger studies are needed before the test can be employed routinely.
"This research uses a different way of examining tumor cells, specifically the chemical marks on the proteins that package their DNA," Hooper said. "By detecting signals in the blood, researchers are exploring whether they can identify breast cancer and which tumors carry a higher risk of recurrence."
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The study, published in Nature and led by researchers at Israel's Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Weizmann Institute of Science, focused on epigenetic signatures, chemical tags that help control patterns of gene activity. The researchers found that these signatures could be detected in blood, thanks to dead cells, and used both to identify early breast cancer and assess the likelihood of its recurrence.
What the Blood Test Found
While some "liquid biopsies" are already used to help guide treatment plans, detecting early cancers through blood tests and bloodstream markers remains difficult because very small tumors release only tiny amounts of detectable traces.
The researchers built on an existing technique that analyzes nucleosomes which are segments of DNA wrapped around proteins that are released into the blood when cells, including cancer cells, die. Using single-molecule microscopy and fluorescent labels, they measured dozens of epigenetic markers across millions of nucleosomes.
Computational analysis and artificial intelligence were then used to identify patterns associated with cancer.
The method was tested using blood from 77 breast cancer patients who had been followed for at least five years at the Mayo Clinic in Florida, as well as 30 healthy women.
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The AI models were able to distinguish women with early-stage breast cancer from healthy women with 95 percent accuracy. These cancers were still confined to the breast and measured no more than two centimeters.
Hooper said the potential for blood tests to complement existing screening is particularly significant because mammography does not always detect every cancer.
"In women with extremely dense breast tissue, screening sensitivity has been reported at around 50 percent in some studies," she said. "Innovations that could help us detect cancers missed by current screening are very exciting."
Detecting the Risk of Recurrence
Even after early diagnosis and apparently successful treatment, breast cancer returns in an estimated 20 to 40 percent of cases, according to current statistics.
The researchers were able to pinpoint one possible warning signal that could help doctors get ahead of any recurrence. They found that a rare group of highly aggressive and invasive cells could exist even within tumors not otherwise considered particularly aggressive or late-stage. Laboratory models starting with nonaggressive breast cancer cells eventually produced this aggressive population, making them a hidden threat.
When scientists searched for the cells' epigenetic signature in patients' blood, greater levels were associated with a higher likelihood of recurrence. Combining that signature with other epigenetic markers allowed the researchers to distinguish, with 81 percent accuracy, between patients whose cancer returned during follow-up and those whose disease did not.
The test also identified potential recurrence risk among some patients considered low risk by conventional measures.
"Evidence is mounting that cancer cells exploit their epigenetic flexibility to change their behavior, become more aggressive and evade treatment," one of the study's authors, Professor Efrat Shema, said in a statement. "In the future, they could help us not only predict recurrence but also search for ways to prevent it."
More Research Is Needed
Still, Hooper cautions that the study was early and retrospective, and largely involved hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers.
"We need larger studies following women over time, including women without symptoms, to establish how well the test works in routine screening, how often it produces false alarms or misses cancers, and whether it improves outcomes," she said.
She added that assessing recurrence risk is only part of the challenge. The samples in this study were collected before surgery, while some blood tests designed to monitor recurrence after treatment are already commercially available.
"What we do not yet have is convincing evidence that changing treatment in response to an early positive result improves long-term outcomes," Hooper went on. "The aim is to reduce longer-term recurrence and ultimately improve survival while avoiding unnecessary treatment."
Reference
Shema, E., Ron, G., Furth, N. et al. (2026). Epigenetic heterogeneity in breast tumours informs diagnosis and prognosis. Nature.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-11230-y.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Kara Dolman and Cristina Diciu.
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