A new blood test can help detect the presence of early-stage lung and prostate cancers - as well as any recurrences of these diseases.

In a new study presented at the Anesthesiology 2013 annual meeting, researchers have found that an increased level of serum-free fatty acids and their metabolites in the blood stream can help indicate the presence of lung cancer in the body.

According to the study's authors, such a test could be extremely beneficial for the detection and management of the disease.

"Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., and unlike some other cancers, there is no easy way to diagnose it," senior author Dr. David Sessler, professor and chair of the department of outcomes research at the Cleveland Clinic, told FoxNews.com. "The current standard is a spiral CT, which works well, but they are expensive, and they expose patients to radiation. So having a blood test for lung cancer would be very helpful."

Sessler said that he and his research team stumbled upon these biomarkers for lung cancer while conducting an entirely different experiment.

"It was complete serendipity," Sessler said. "We were looking for inflammatory markers associated with a particular type of anesthesia - general anesthesia versus epidural anesthesia. There was no difference in inflammation, but we noticed that patients with lung cancer had higher incidences of these fatty acids and their metabolites."

After making this discovery, the researchers decided to further analyze these potential biomarkers. They examined blood samples from 55 patients with lung cancer and 40 patients with prostate cancer, comparing them to samples from people without cancer. The blood samples from the cancer patients had one- to six-times greater amounts of the serum-free fatty acids and their metabolites than the samples from cancer-free patients.

In a second phase of the study, the researchers examined blood samples from 24 patients with lung cancer before they underwent curative surgery. They then analyzed the patients' blood at six and 24 hours after surgery. The level of serum-free fatty acids and their metabolites decreased three to 10 times within 24 hours after the cancerous tumors were removed.

The researchers didn't assess why the level of these compounds increased, but they said their findings are consistent with previous research on the relationship of serum-free fatty acids and cancer.

"The three fatty acids are necessary for cancer cell growth, and some cancers stimulate the release of these fatty acids," Sessler said.

Though the blood test was shown to be effective in detecting the disease, the researchers argue that it should not be used as the go-to test for lung cancer screenings. However, it could be helpful for a certain population of patients.

"It's by no means a perfect test; blood tests rarely are," Sessler said. "It is about 75 percent for sensitivity and specificity. It is probably not a good enough test to use for routine screening, but it well could be helpful for high risk patients or patients who have found a nodule but don't know if it's cancerous enough."

Sessler also said the blood test could be helpful for those who have already undergone lung cancer surgery to better understand if they will suffer recurrence.

"If someone who has lung cancer and has surgery, you might use this as a follow up," Sessler said. "Presumably the fatty acids go down after surgery, and an increase in concentration might tell you if patient is having a relapse."

While other blood tests do exist for some cancers - most notably the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test for prostate cancer - Sessler said this is still an exciting discovery for the future of lung cancer treatment.

"Yes, there are some biomarkers for some cancers, but there's no general cancer biomarker, nor has there ever been an established biomarker for lung cancer," Sessler said.

Three new studies have shown that in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, it is important for adults to seek treatment for a sleep illness and aim for 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night.

One study of 2,240 adults is the first to examine the link between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and mortality in Asians.

Results showed that all-cause mortality risk was 2.5 times higher and cardiovascular mortality risk was more than 4 times higher among people with severe OSA.

Another study of 2,673 patients in Australia found that untreated OSA is associated with an increased risk of motor vehicle crashes in very sleepy men as well as near-misses in men and women.

Participants with untreated OSA reported crashes at a rate three times higher than the general community.

That last study examined the relationship between sleep duration and self-rated health in Korean adults.

Results showed that short sleep duration of 5 hours or less per day and long sleep duration of 9 hours or more per day was associated with poor self-rated health.

All three of the studies are published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

Children with irregular bedtime habits are more prone to behavioural problems but adhering to a defined sleep regime improves behaviour, says a study.

The study published in the Journal Paediatrics, found that irregular bedtimes could disrupt natural body rhythms and cause sleep deprivation, undermining brain maturation and the ability to regulate certain behaviours.

"Not having fixed bedtimes, accompanied by a constant sense of flux, induces a state of body and mind akin to jet lag" and this affects healthy development and daily functioning, said Yvonne Kelly, professor at University College London Epidemiology and Public Health.

Jet lag is a physiological condition which results from alterations to one's daily cycle of activity. It is classified as one of the circadian rhythm sleep disorders.

"We know that early child development has profound influences on health and well-being on life. It follows that disruptions to sleep, especially if it occurs at key times during development, could have lifelong impacts on health," said Kelly.

As children progressed without a regular bedtime, their behavioural scores -- which include hyperactivity, behaviour, problems with peers and emotional difficulties -- worsened.

However, children who switched to a more regular bedtime had clear improvements in their behaviour, reports a Science Daily.

Scientists have claimed that a cure for cancer is being developed from human breast milk.

A protein in human milk, lactaptin, was found to destroy diseased cells in tests at a Siberian medical institute.

Project leader Valentin Vlasovs said that the two medications are going through the pre-clinical trial now.

During analyses of the milk proteins they detected a tiny peptide that affected cancer cells. It destroyed cancer cells and left the healthy ones alive, Vlasovs said.

Tests on mice showed the drug works especially well on liver and lung cancers.

Scientists have identified a set of compounds that may be used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) in a new way.

Unlike existing MS therapies that suppress the immune system, the compounds boost a population of progenitor cells that can in turn repair MS-damaged nerve fibers.

One of the newly identified compounds, a Parkinson's disease drug called benztropine, was highly effective in treating a standard model of MS in mice, both alone and in combination with existing MS therapies.

"We're excited about these results, and are now considering how to design an initial clinical trial," Luke L. Lairson, an assistant professor of Chemistry at TSRI and senior author of the study, said.

Lairson cautioned that benztropine is a drug with dose-related adverse side effects, and has yet to be proven effective at a safe dose in human MS patients.

"People shouldn't start using it off-label for MS," he said.

The study is published online in the journal Nature.