In China Doctors will regularly examine the eyes, ears and breath of patients. Now it seems they may be right to do so. Scientists from Israel and China have developed a single test that is 90 per cent accurate at finding and distinguishing cancers and other stomach complaints. Clearly this could revolutionise and speed up the way this form of cancer is diagnosed, according to a report in the British Journal of Cancer.
Stomach cancer can have poor survival rates - most people are diagnosed late with an advanced stage of the disease and only approximately 20 per cent survive 5 years.
Current diagnosis involves taking a biopsy of the stomach using a probe and flexible camera inserted via the mouth but the new test searches for chemical profiles in breath that are unique to stomach cancer patients.,
In this breat test research 37 patients had stomach cancer, 32 had stomach ulcers and 61 had other stomach complaints. The breath test was able to distinguish accurately between these conditions 90% of the time, and could also tell the difference between early and late-stage stomach cancers.