British scientists have published new information about a blood protein test that can predict the onset of Alzheimer's by one year -- a breakthrough in the future of drug trials.

The BBC reports a study of 1,000 people was 87 percent accurate in predicting people with mild cognitive impairment would develop dementia.

The study is aimed at making drugs to treat Alzheimer's, which is currently not a preventable disease. But the protein test may make its way into hospital labs.

Attempts to predict the onset of dementia or prevent it have been pursued since 2002 to dismal results. Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of all cases, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Patients are identified nearly a decade after the onset of the disease, since most forms of dementia are progressive, and gradually become more noticeable.

The new research may be able to help doctors in the future, but it may be several years before that happens, Dr. Ian Pike, chief operating officer at Proteome Sciences, told BBC.

Additionally, if the test is used by doctors, it would not be the sole source of a prediction, said Dr. Eric Karran, director of research at Alzheimer's Research UK. Positive results would be confirmed by other tests such as a spinal fluid tap or brain scans.

The findings have been published in the journal Alzheimer's and Dementia.

More than 44 million people in the world have dementia, and the cost of brain diseases associated with it is $600 billion globally, according to the Alzheimer's Society.

"This gives a better way to identify people who will progress to Alzheimer's disease, people who can be entered into clinical trials earlier, I think that will increase the potential of a positive drug effect and thereby I think we will get to a therapy, which will be an absolute breakthrough if we can get there," Karran told BBC.