Watch: China develops world's first liver cancer detection kit

China has developed a kit to detect liver cancer which is among the hardest to detect with nearly 80 per cent patients finding out about it in the middle or late stage.

Early detection holds the key to fighting cancer as the effect of treatment begins to fade as the tumor spreads.

Researchers atZhongshan Hospital inShanghai worked for over nine years to develop the cancer detection reagent kits.

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The reagent only need 0.2 milliliters of blood to detect liver cancer in the early stage. It can check and assess seven liver cancer diagnostic molecular markers, and the sensitivity of the test can reach over 80 per cent, Reuters reported.

"Alpha Fetoprotein (AFP) has the positive rate of 60 to 70 per cent, but there are some false positive results among them. The use of micro RNA (Ribose Nucleic Acid) enables us to better solve the blood testing problem for patients whose AFP is negative," said Fan Jia, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the president of Zhongshan Hospital told Reuters

"Tests show that the accuracy of the detection can reach 90 per cent," Zhou Jian, deputy president of Zhongshan Hospital revelead.