{"id":244625,"date":"2026-09-29T05:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/blood-test-trends-may-help-identify-patients-at-increased-risk-of-cancer"},"modified":"2026-09-29T05:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:03:11","slug":"blood-test-trends-may-help-identify-patients-at-increased-risk-of-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/blood-test-trends-may-help-identify-patients-at-increased-risk-of-cancer","title":{"rendered":"Blood test trends may help identify patients at increased risk of cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/blood-test-trends-may-help-identify-patients-at-increased-risk-of-cancer.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Blood test trends alongside unexplained weight loss can improve triage for cancer testing, according to a study by Brian Nicholson and colleagues from the University of Oxford, UK, published Sept. 17 in the journal PLOS Medicine.<\/p>\n<p>Abnormal blood test results, such as low hemoglobin or increased platelet counts, can provide clues about a patient\u2019s risk of developing cancer. However, monitoring trends over repeat tests could provide further clues in some instances by identifying cancer-related changes in blood test results that do not appear abnormal. Assessing patterns in blood test abnormalities and trends alongside unexplained weight loss could enhance cancer risk assessment and support earlier diagnosis.<\/p>\n<p>In this study, researchers examined trends in blood test results among patients with unexplained weight loss, a common non-specific symptom associated with multiple cancer types. The goal was to determine whether trends in 26 commonly used blood tests in primary care could improve cancer risk stratification compared with abnormalities on single blood tests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blood test trends alongside unexplained weight loss can improve triage for cancer testing, according to a study by Brian Nicholson and colleagues from the University of Oxford, UK, published Sept. 17 in the journal PLOS Medicine. Abnormal blood test results, such as low hemoglobin or increased platelet counts, can provide clues about a patient\u2019s risk [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":707,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/707"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}