Scientists in Britain have developed a test that can detect as much as a year in advance if a patient will develop Alzheimer’s disease.

The test comes after a decade of research by Oxford University and King’s College London.  A study showed that the brain develops 10 proteins just before the disease takes hold in the brain.

The doctors hailed the test as groundbreaking because once someone develops Alzheimer’s, there’s no real way to treat it.  With the development of an early warning test, doctors hope to find a way to treat a patient to stop the development of Alzheimer’s.

“Although we are making drugs [to treat Alzheimer’s] they are all failing. But if we could treat people earlier it may be that the drugs are effective,” said Simon Lovestone, professor of translational neuroscience at Oxford. “Alzheimer’s begins to affect the brain many years before patients are diagnosed with the disease. If we could treat the disease in that phase we would in effect have a preventative strategy.”

The test has been proven to have 87 percent accuracy in predicting the onset of Alzheimer’s.