VIDEO: At a lab in the Medical District of Dallas, Cancer Check Labs is behind a big project aiming to detect cancer early in firefighters.
Cancer is the number one cause of death in firefighters. Two out of three will be diagnosed, which is more than three times the general population's cancer rate.
"The key to catching cancer is to catch it early," said Sumit Rai, founder and CEO of Cancer Check Labs. With one blood draw, Rai said, the breakthrough technology can identify more than 200 types and subtypes of solid tumors.
"All tumors are known to shed in order to spread," said Rai. "We are able to extract these whole tumor cells intact such that we can put them on the glass slide. So that way, we can grab the tissue without actually having to go in for a surgical biopsy."