in the blood

"Everyone in the blood cancer community, whether they're affected by leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma is genuinely chuffed and deeply grateful," she said.

Currently, men over 50 can request a PSA test, which looks for abnormally high levels of protein in the blood, but this is unreliable, picking up many prostate cancers that would never need treatment, and missing others that do.

“Muffinshire Lane? Doesn’t ring a bell, I’m afraid. But don’t fret, Miss Lumley. I’ve a knack for navigation. It’s in the blood; the men in my family have been sailors going back generations. Say, do you happen to have a map handy? I bet I can help you sort everything out, if you’ll let me have a look.”

Uricase breaks down uric acid, a waste product that routinely forms in the blood.

The concept was introduced in 2021 by Prof. Resia Pretorius from Stellenbosch University's Department of Physiological Sciences, when they found the abnormal presence of such microclots in the blood samples of COVID-19 patients.