A breath test which can predict the chance of developing stomach cancer has been developed by Israeli scientists in the hope that it could save thousands of lives.
Currently symptoms of stomach cancer are often mistaken for other complaints and there is no effective early screening test, so it is usually diagnosed when it is too late for treatment to be effective.
But a new test developed by Israeli scientists senses tiny changes in the level of organic compounds in exhaled breath which signal that stomach cancer is present.
Researchers suggest that the technology could be used to check patients' risk of stomach cancer, and if it is deemed high they could then be tested with a conventional endoscopy.
A trial involving thousands of patients, including those with stomach cancer or pre-cancerous symptoms, is under way in Europe to test the technology's suitability as a screening method. "The attraction of this test lies in its non-invasiveness, ease of use, rapid predictiveness, and potentially low cost," said Prof Hossam Haick, of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute in Haifa, Israel. To develop the test, researchers analysed breath samples from more than 400 volunteers who had already been diagnosed with cancer or pre-cancerous cells.
