University of Cambridge finds one test now possible for most blood cancers

Researchers at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. and colleagues spotted a new cancer gene that will enable a single test that screens for most chronic blood cancers, The Times of India reported. For the last several years, clinicians have used a test that screens for the gene JAK2, accounting for close to 60% of patients with chronic blood cancers. But a new gene, CALR, is mutated in the remaining 40%, according to the story. A simple blood test that screens for both is now possible, the research team said. Details are published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Story