Breath test for stomach cancer
Scientists believe they can test whether people are likely to have stomach cancer by analysing their breath.
Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a relatively uncommon cancer.
Because the initial symptoms are often mistaken for other complaints and there is no effective early-stage screening test, it is usually diagnosed when it is too late to save lives.
A study led by the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology found a new type of technology called nanoarray, which senses tiny changes in the levels of particular compounds in exhaled breath, was able to accurately identify high-risk changes signifying the development of stomach cancer.
Researchers suggest the technology could be used to check patients’ risk of stomach cancer, and if it is deemed high they could be tested with a conventional endoscopy.
A “major study” involving thousands of patients, including those with stomach cancer or pre-cancerous symptoms, is underway in Europe to test the technology’s suitability as a screening method.
The research, which is published online in the journal Gut, concluded that the “attractiveness of this test lies in its non-invasiveness, ease of use (therefore high compliance would be expected), rapid predictiveness, insensitivity to confounding factors and potentially low cost”.
Meanwhile in a separate initiative aimed at improving survival rates from bowel cancer, Queens University in Belfast is unveiling a new personalised treatment programme which aims to to ensure that each patient has access to the therapy most effective for their needs.
The £5m scheme being launched today will focus on cancer cells collected from 2,000 patients in clinical trials.
Professor Mark Lawler said it was a revolutionary way to target the disease.
He said: "It's a totally new way of looking at things that says let's look at the genetic make-up of bowel cancer cells (and) use that to drive...new diagnostics that allow us to say this particular treatment will work for this patient."
