Researchers in Australia have discovered that cancer forms a unique DNA structure when placed in water. They have taken advantage of this discovery and have developed a much quicker and almost as reliable cancer test. The test has been shown to work on breast, prostate, bowel, and lymphoma cancers. With ninety-percent accuracy from over two hundred tissue and blood samples, they’re confident that these results can be replicated with other cancers.

Cancer alters a healthy cell’s DNA pattern and the altered pattern can be seen during the test when cancerous cells are placed in a solution such as water.

“Using a high-resolution microscope, we saw that cancerous DNA fragments folded into three-dimensional structure in water. These were different to what we saw with normal tissue DNA in the water,” the article explains.

The test uses gold particles, which bind with cancer-affected DNA and “can affect molecular behavior in a way that causes visible color changes,” it added.

The next step for scientists is to find out how early cancers can be detected with this test. The test is yet to be used on humans and large clinical trials are required before it can be used on prospective patients.