A simple beauty trick has helped a young Australian scientist unearth a revolutionary new way to detect breast cancer.

Dr Dharmica Mistry’s eureka moment came during her monthly beauty routine of spraying olive oil in her hair.

She realised that oils from the blood of breast cancer patients was being deposited in their hair and that a simple blood test could screen for the disease.

Although the test is not yet on the market, preliminary results show a promising 90 per cent cancer detection rate.

“The test would be as simple as having a blood test at the GP,” says Dr Mistry.

A blood test would not only improve the role of existing screening methods like mammograms, but also revolutionise the way young women and women living in rural areas access breast cancer testing.

Right now, one in eight Australians are living with breast cancer. Today alone, around forty women will be diagnosed with the disease.

But getting a diagnosis isn’t always easy – especially for young women and those living in the bush.

That’s because mammograms which is the traditional way of screening for breast cancer, don’t always work on young women and may be hard to come by in rural areas.

Dr Mistry hopes to change all that.

“The current testing method I do is physical examination.

“So its being vigilant, checking for changes and all those sorts of things.

“I just think that we’ve put men on the moon and we’ve done all these amazing things and yet this is all we’ve got for the detection of breast cancer for women under fifty.

“I think there should be something more and I mean why not have a crack and have a go.”

Although young women are less likely to get breast cancer, their survival rates are much lower.

That’s partly because they rely on self-examination, so by the time they feel a lump, it might be too late.

“Everyone is very vigilant about checking and doing the right thing and looking after their health,” says Dr Mistry.

“And I think there is a demand, especially for younger women, for a tool that can be used for them more often and more accurately.

“So a blood test is revolutionary really, there isn’t one on the market at the moment… the test would be as simple as having a blood test at the GP or with your health care professional.

“There are lower accuracy blood tests which are used in adjant but this is something we’re seeing early indications of a very high accuracy of ninety per cent for the most common form of breast cancer.

“That means that is changes the ball game in terms of screening.”

Current tests for breast cancer are “invasive” she says, with her breakthrough changing the experience for both the patient and the doctor.

“Because as I mentioned before, it is invasive to find, all these tests that you need to do to find out whether you have cancer, they hurt and you have so many people poking and prodding at you and if you could just make it easier,” says Dr Mistry.

“People put off going to the doctors cause they don’t want to have a mammogram, they know that its painful and if you just knew that there was a simple blood test, I think a lot more people will get checked out.”

Dr Mistry is hoping to start clinical trials next year and to have a test on the market as soon as 2019. But according to the Cancer Council there is still a long way to go.

“So at the moment there isn’t a reliable alternative to mammography,” says Sanchia Aranda from the Cancer Council.

“Obviously the Holy Grail of diagnostics is something like a blood test that can be very easily implemented.

“The problem with scientific discovery is that scientists get very excited about their discovery but there is a long pathway before that could ever be the replacement.

“It would mean it would have to be assessed head to head against mammograms screening to see whether or not it not only captures more cancers, that those cancers are actually diagnosed earlier than through mammography screening and also that it alters mortality outcomes.”

But for women living in regional and rural areas a blood test can’t come soon enough. Around one in three Australians diagnosed with breast cancer live outside the major cities.

And although there is less prevalence of breast cancer in regional Australia, the survival rates are much lower, poor access and participation in screening services like mammograms is part of the reason.

“So in Australia, we are really a really big country, you’ve got rural and regional areas and a lot of women might not have access to a mammogram clinic and yes we’ve got the breast screen buses going around but you need women to participate and be doing this more proactively and have it convenient and I think a blood test can really do that,” says Dr Mistry.

“My dream is to just have this out there for every woman everywhere, around the world.

“If you’re in science or tech or any stem subject you have the ability to make a small change, and I think everybody is always looking for their chance to make a dent and I guess this is mine.”