Breath test shows promise for diagnosis of esophagogastric CA

(HealthDay)—Breath analysis shows potential for noninvasive diagnosis of esophagogastric cancer (OGC), according to a study published online May 17 in JAMA Oncology.

Sheraz R. Markar, Ph.D., from Imperial College London, and colleagues recruited patients for a diagnostic validation study conducted at three London hospital sites. A total of 335 patients were included: 172 in the control group and 163 with OGC who were on a curative treatment pathway. Breath samples were collected using secure steel breath bags and were analyzed by selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry.

Sixty-nine percent of the OGC patients had tumor stage T3/4 and 65 percent had nodal metastasis on clinical staging. The researchers found that the receiver operator characteristic curve produced by predictive probabilities generated by the five-volatile organic compounds diagnostic model had good diagnostic accuracy, with an area under the curve of 0.85. For the diagnosis of OGC, the sensitivity and specificity were 80 and 81 percent, respectively.

"The next step is to establish the diagnostic accuracy of the test among the intended population in primary care where the test will be applied," the authors write.