(Yicai Global) Aug. 15 -- A team from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, led by Prof. Lo Yuk Ming, has developed a way of diagnosing nasopharyngeal cancer before symptoms show through DNA analysis of the Epstein-Barr virus in plasma.

The group conducted tests for Epstein-Barr virus DNA in plasma samples from over 20,000 middle-aged Hong Kong males who hadn't shown any symptoms of cancer between 2013 and 2016, Tencent Finance reported on Aug. 14.

Nasopharyngeal cancer, or nasopharyngeal carcinoma, is a rare type of cancer that begins in the back of the throat and primarily affects the head and neck.

Among the 20,174 participants, 309 were diagnosed positive in both initial and second tests, of which 34 were confirmed to have nasopharyngeal cancer following further tests. The findings were published in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, a renowned medical source.

The detection technology in still in its very early stages, making it a feasible screening method in places where the related mortality rate is high, Lo said.

Lo pioneered non-invasive prenatal diagnosis in 2011, enabling millions of pregnant women in over 90 countries to complete prenatal fetal DNA tests without doing an amniocentesis test, which involves a needle being inserted through the abdomen under ultrasound guidance. Some have hailed Lo as the father of non-invasive DNA prenatal diagnosis.