Routine eye tests can detect blood cancer early, leading doctors say

Blood cancers could be picked up earlier during routine eye tests, leading doctors say.

Groundbreaking research has found that eye scans carried out by high street opticians could pick up microscopic changes that are linked to an increased risk of developing the deadly cancers, which affect 40,000 people in the UK every year and include leukaemia and Hodgkin lymphoma.

Compared with data from healthy patients without cancer, those with the changes were seven times more likely to be diagnosed with a type of blood cancer known as myeloma, and twice as likely to be diagnosed with leukaemia over the following decade.

The study used artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse eye scans from more than 1,300 UK patients.

Blood cancers are notoriously difficult to diagnose because the symptoms – which include fatigue, night sweats and bruising – can be confused for other medical issues.

They are the country's third biggest cancer killer, behind lung and bowel cancer, causing around 16,000 annual deaths, according to charity Blood Cancer UK.

There is also no simple screening test. But researchers say chronic inflammation is a hallmark. This leads to microscopic changes to the blood vessels in the retina.

The study was published in the European Journal of Cancer. Senior author Dr Anant Madabhushi, from Emory University in the US, said: 'AI was able to use routine retina images take by opticians to predict the risk of developing multiple myeloma, lymphoma and leukaemia ten years before diagnosis.'

Dr Richard Francis, deputy director of research at Blood Cancer UK, said: 'While more research is needed before this could be used in clinical practice, these findings provide an important proof of principle that AI-driven tools may one day help us intervene earlier and improve outcomes.'