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Breast cancer is still one of the major death causes for women. In order to prevent yourself from breast cancer, you should detect it as early as possible. There are many ways to diagnose breast cancer, such as mammogram and ultrasound. However, nowadays breast cancer can be detected from hair test. The test is much less invasive than mammograms, which are uncomfortable and are less effective in younger women. Mammograms can miss cancers, particularly in younger women and, in women who are genetically predisposed to developing breast cancer, radiation from a mammogram could increase the risks. Mammograms can be a boon for women in rural areas and areas without breast scan or mammogram facilities.

Using the hair test, people just take 20 or so strands of hair, then it can be used to tell if you have breast cancer. Australian company, Fermiscan, has developed a test that helps detect breast cancer more easily. Hair from women with breast cancer can be distinguished from hair obtained from women without the disease, researchers in Australia report.

The test uses a sample of hair that is exposed to a high-powered X-ray beam in a synchrotron. When hair is exposed to X-rays, the radiation is diffracted in a distinctive pattern by the alpha-keratin that forms hair, the researchers explain in the International Journal of Cancer. Dr. Gary L. Corino and Dr. Peter W. French, based at Fermiscan Ltd in Sydney, used the technique to look at samples of hair from 13 patients diagnosed with breast cancer and 20 healthy subjects.

Hair was cut as close to the skin as possible to obtain samples of the most recent hair growth. The investigators “successfully and consistently generated the basic alpha-keratin X-ray diffraction pattern in every hair sample.” Hair from patients with breast cancer more likely to produce a distinctly different x-ray diffraction pattern than hair from cancer-free patients.

This method takes less time to get the result. If you send hair samples to the US for testing, results could be returned within one to two weeks.

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