An Australian company is on the brink of launching a world-first test that can detect breast cancer by close examination of a patient's hair.
The test is based on an Australian university discovery that breast cancer changes the molecular structure of hair, and the difference can be picked up using sophisticated X-ray technology.
The company, Fermiscan, is running a trial of 2,000 women that compares the hair test to a mammogram and said it should be finished within the next two months.
Managing director David Young said a pilot was expected to start later this year or early next year in an Australian city, although he would not reveal which one.
"We are obviously excited about it," Mr Young said.
"Assuming we get the right outcome from these trials, it's a pretty revolutionary change in the way we might be able to assist with the detection of breast cancer."
The company hopes to make the test available without a referral through pathology collection centres, and charge about $250.
It says mammography is the current "gold standard" in detecting breast cancer, but it was painful, had a significant false negative rate and was not recommended for women under 50 who have denser breast tissue.
The hair test, by comparison, was safe, painless, non-invasive and suitable for women of any age, the company said.
It works because breast tumours secrete chemicals called cytokines into the bloodstream, which can affect the way the hair follicle works to form hair.
The test requires 10 strands at least 30mm long of untreated scalp or pubic hair, which are then exposed to an X-ray beam for up to 30 seconds.
An image formed from the diffracted X-rays is analysed to look for subtle changes that indicate the patient has breast cancer, namely a ring superimposed on the pattern for normal hair.
In previous trials of about 500 women, the hair test picked up all women who had breast cancer confirmed by a mammogram, but also detected some "false positives" in samples of women who were later found not to have breast cancer.
But the 2,000-person trial also turned up the unexpected result that the test did not work on women who had recently dyed their hair.
Mr Young said the company in April finished examining samples from the first 107 women, all of whom had the hair test and a mammogram.
The mammograms gave 19 positive results, but 10 were "false positives" as biopsies confirmed cancer in only nine women.
The hair test gave only one false positive among the 19, but also missed three of the nine patients who did have cancer.
"When we went back to analyse the hair, it was clear the three we missed were from dyed hair - we need new growth to be able to identify the cancer," Mr Young said.
The hair test also found a number of positive results among women the mammogram did not identify as having cancer.
Mr Young said it was not clear at this stage whether these results were "false positives" or whether the test was able to pick up positive breast cancer results earlier than mammograms.
Early detection of cancer helps improve the chance of it being successfully treated.
The company is currently using a synchrotron in Chicago to test the hair but hopes to use a facility expected to open in Melbourne next month.
