Breast cancer survivors have no way of knowing whether their cancer will come back or spread to other organs. Researchers at the University of Southern California are developing a new blood test to change that.

Researchers at USC’S Keck School of Medicine   are using   DNA from breast cancer patients to create a blood test that would predict which breast cancer patients are at risk for having their cancer come back and spread to other organs..

“There may be some residual cells are beyond any detection tools today,” said Dr. Bodour Salhia, Keck School of Medicine of  USC.

Researchers extract DNA from patients and they test it for five years to see if cancer returns and if the patients who donated the blood also have recurrence.

Dr. Salhia said, “We want to do a better job of being able to determine which women remain at high risk for metastasis after their treatment.”

To develop this new blood test researchers are recruiting 500 breast cancer patients from early to late stage.

Researchers in this study collected blood from breast cancer patients in California. They plan to collect more DNA samples from breast cancer patients nationwide later this year.