(CNN) -- Johnson and Johnson will partner with Massachusetts General Hospital to develop and market a blood test that could find a single cancer cell circulating in a person's blood, the company said Monday.

Researchers hope the test will be used by oncologists as a diagnostic tool aimed at discovering as early as possible if a cancer has spread, as well as by researchers in coming up with new drug therapies.

Dr. Mehmet Toner, director of the BioMicroElectroMechanical Systems Resource Center in Massachusetts General's Center for Engineering in Medicine, says while it will take at least five years before the test is on the market, it's another step toward personalized medicine and the implications for patients are significant. "It is very big. It has the potential to turn cancer into a chronic disease, because we can monitor patients individually and respond with treatment to the genetic makeup of their cancer."

Toner says the test is like a liquid biopsy and targets almost all solid cancers -- cancers found in "solid" organs like the breast or prostate. The cancer cells it finds would be analyzed and their genetic makeup determined, which would be useful in monitoring patients and targeting therapies to the individual.