A simple vinegar cancer test has helped save thousands of lives in India.
Doctors presented this life-saving vinegar-based cancer test at a conference today. They say that it’s cheap enough to help prevent thousands of cancer cases in developing nations. In this particular case, it helped prevent a third of all cervical cancer cases among women in India.
In developed nations like the U.S., doctors use pap smears to look for signs of cervical cancer. Those in poor nations can’t afford these tests so doctors looked to cheaper methods that got the job done. They found that swabbing the cervix with diluted vinegar caused infected cells to change color.
The best part about the above cancer test is that it doesn’t require any expensive tools or training. In fact, anybody can trained to perform the test in just two weeks. With such a cheap barrier of entry, doctors hope that this simple test can save lives.
The study found that this new cancer test could save up to 22,000 lives in India every year. They hope that the test will start being used in more underdeveloped countries and save up to 72,600 lives around the world each year.
India has liked what it sees in this study, and has already started to expand the program. There’s also another test that is looking to detect breast cancer at an earlier stage, but it’s too early in the study to find if it has had any effect. If both programs can prove successful, the medical community will be able to save more women’s lives around the world.
[h/t: AP]