Top 6 Medical Advances of the Year 2013

No. 6: A cheaper and faster way to detect pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease, which often leads to death, mainly because it is not detected early enough. This could all change in the near future, as a new diagnostic test has been developed and tested throughout 2013.

The test, originally created in 2012, by a 15-year old boy, Jack Andraka, uses a paper sensor strip that can detect a protein which is commonly found in the blood of patients with pancreatic cancer. This test, which has a reported accuracy of 90%, costs a whopping 3 cents and lands in the sixth spot on our list of the the top medical advances of the year 2013,