A scientist behind pioneering research into a test which can show if a patient has a brain tumour from their tears, says the work was deeply personal to her.
Prof Petra Hamerlik who is leading the study at the University of Manchester, lost her father to a brain tumour at 15 and said it took eight months to diagnose the condition.
She said the experience motivated her to find a better way to diagnose brain tumours and she has dedicated her life to cancer research.
The ground-breaking screening test, which started with a casual chat between two scientists in a bar in Denmark in 2012, has proved successful in initial trials and the research is about to be published worldwide.
Hamerlik told BBC North West Tonight: “In that conversation it somehow came up that he was analysing tears for some ocular diseases and I was like, ‘what if there is a connection?’ because we know the eye is the extension of the central nervous system.
“We speculated that maybe whatever is happening in the brain when the tumour starts growing it is mirrored and reflected in the tear fluid.
“So that was like kind of the first thought.”
It proved to be right. While Hamelick had tried blood tests they did not work about 500 people have taken part in the NHS approved study into tear fluid across eight different sites.
