Could breath tests help with early diagnosis of stomach and oesophagus cancers?

New research has been undertaken to identify whether or not breath tests can be performed in order to detect cancer of the stomach and oesophagus.

A sample of 300 patients was used and the breath test, which seeks to identify a possible chemical signature indicative of the cancers, was able to correctly indicate cancer in 8 out of 10 patients. Similarly, the test was able to correctly exclude cancer in 8 out of 10 patients.

The study was carried out by researchers from Imperial College London and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and was presented at the European Cancer Congress held in Amsterdam. Research is at a very early stage and it is yet to be determined whether or not such testing could be of assistance in clinical practice.

One of the difficulties with both stomach cancer and oesophageal cancer is that they are usually present without symptoms. It is often not until symptoms occur that patients present to their GP and, following medical investigations, the cancer is diagnosed. This often results in the cancer being in an advanced stage before any treatment is administered, thus reducing the patient’s life expectancy.

The great benefit with having a breath test for stomach and oesophageal cancer would be the ability to diagnose the disease well before symptoms develop and/or the cancer has spread to other parts of the patient’s body. This in turn would hopefully reduce the mortality and improve patients’ life expectancy.

Ben Ward, a solicitor in the Ashtons medical injury team, comments: “We are often approached by people who have suffered a delayed diagnosis of stomach and oesophageal cancer some time after they initially presented with symptoms. The difficulty with these cases, and why claims do not always succeed, is because the patient’s life expectancy would have been heavily reduced in any event, particularly if their disease would have already spread (metastasised) when they first presented for investigations. Anything that can be done to make early diagnosis easier would be a very positive step.”