New blow against cancer

A NEW breath test could save lives by diagnosing deadly cancers earlier.

Research shows the breathalyser is 85% accurate at identifying stomach and oesophageal cancers, which between them affect 16 000 men and women a year.

Both types of cancer are often diagnosed late, leading to poor survival rates. Scientists hope the new breath test will ultimately see cancers spotted earlier, resulting in more effective treatment and saved lives.

It is also expected to help doctors avoid unnecessary endoscopy examinations – unpleasant diagnostic procedures that require a flexible telescope to be inserted down the throat and into the stomach. The procedure is expensive and can be uncomfortable.

By the time the symptoms of stomach or oesophageal cancer appear, the disease is often in later stages. Once diagnosed, around 85% of sufferers die within five years.

But scientists believe the new test, which measures five different chemicals in the breath, could make it simpler to screen patients earlier and give vital clues on whether they have cancer or a less serious gastric condition.

Dr Sheraz Markar, one of the trial researchers from Imperial College London, said: “At present the only way to diagnose oesophageal cancer or stomach cancer is with endoscopy. This method is expensive, invasive and has some risk of complications.

“A breath test could be used as a noninvasive, first-line test to reduce the number of unnecessary endoscopies. In the longer term this could also mean earlier diagnosis and treatment, and better survival.”

For the new study, breath samples were collected from 335 patients at three London hospitals. Of these, 163 had been diagnosed with oesophageal or stomach cancer, while 172 were shown to be cancer-free after undergoing endoscopy tests.

The results, presented at the European Cancer Congress meeting in Amsterdam, showed that the test was good at identifying those patients who had cancer, and unlikely to produce a false diagnosis.

Dr Justine Alford from Cancer Research UK welcomed the findings. “The next step is to see if it can detect the disease at its earliest stages,” she said. — The Daily Telegraph

Picture: YOUTUBE EASY DOES IT: Disease-detecting breathalysers, such as the Na Nose pictured here, are being developed by researchers in the hope of detecting disease in its earliest stages