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Prenatal test accidentally picks up cancer in 50% of those with wonky results | The prenatal test results flagged cancers when other screens and tests missed it.

The prenatal test results flagged cancers when other screens and tests missed it.

For the study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, NIH researchers set out to repeat the cfDNA tests and then screen the women for cancer using various methods. Thirty were found to have noncancerous biological reasons for their weird cfDNA results, including fibroids, placental mosaicism, a stem cell abnormality, or a fetal finding. While the study is small and the findings should be considered preliminary, the results suggest that peculiar cfDNA tests are effective at signaling hidden cancers, and clinicians should follow up on them.

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