Breast cancer taste test

Women may just have to bid mammography goodbye with a smile. Enough of the painful process and hello to dental/oral breast cancer detection.

A Cancer Investigation journal article reports that a U.S. team has found that women with breast cancer secrete particular proteins into the saliva that can be picked up by a test.

Houston, Texas based researchers analyzed samples from 30 patients and found 49 proteins that distinguished those who were healthy from those who had breast cancer tumors. The proteins could also distinguish between tumors that are benign and malignant.

Of the 30 participants in the research, only 10 had cancer. This is good news but researchers say there's still a need for further investigations and evidences.