MEDICAL research in Southampton could pave the way for doctors to test blood for signs of serious illness such as cancer well before symptoms arise.

Boffins at the University of Southampton have found "bio-markers" that indicate breast cancer in samples collected from women in Guernsey over the past 30 years.

The unique resource has allowed scientists to look at the samples from women who are healthy in the 30,000-sample strong archive along with the 1,000 who have died from breast cancer.

Human geneticist Paul Townsend, who is leading the study, said that although it was early days in the research the findings were encouraging.

"Already we have seen significant bio-markers of breast cancer in the samples. The quality of the samples we have from Guernsey has been the key but it is early days."

Dr Townsend said the "Holy Grail" would be to test people using a pin-prick blood test for serious illnesses years before they are showing any symptoms.

Knowing the bio-markers would allow doctors to identify anything that could cause problems in the future.

Dr Townsend explained that at the moment tests were used often when patients have already become ill.

"Realistically this research will help in partially a medical and scientific way to differentiate people quickly.

"The ultimate dream is to take a sample of blood and get a characterisation of what might happen to them later in terms of illness."

He said the research could also help identify infections and illnesses like asthma.

Work will now continue to look at more of the samples over several years to build up a more complete picture, Dr Townsend added.