Ideas worth spreading

A promising test for pancreatic cancer ... from a teenager

5,119,472 views |

Jack Andraka |

TED2013

• February 2013

Over 85 percent of all pancreatic cancers are diagnosed late, when someone has less than two percent chance of survival. How could this be? Jack Andraka talks about how he developed a promising early detection test for pancreatic cancer that's super cheap, effective and non-invasive -- all before his 16th birthday.

Over 85 percent of all pancreatic cancers are diagnosed late, when someone has less than two percent chance of survival. How could this be? Jack Andraka talks about how he developed a promising early detection test for pancreatic cancer that's super cheap, effective and non-invasive -- all before his 16th birthday.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Jack Andraka

Cancer detector inventor

See speaker profile

A paper on carbon nanotubes, a biology lecture on antibodies and a flash of insight led 15-year-old Jack Andraka to design a cheaper, more sensitive cancer detector.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.