Simple test
detects gullet cancer
Researchers in Cambridge have
developed a simple test for the fastest growing cancer in
the western world.
The test for cancer of the
gullet should eventually lead to earlier diagnosis of a
disease that kills more than 7,000 people each year.
At present, the only way of
checking for early signs is to push a tube down the gullet
with a camera on it.
That is a risky and expensive
procedure, and so doctors tend not to screen for the
condition.
Dr Rebecca Fitzgerald, of the
Medical Research Council, has developed a simpler technique.
It involves swallowing a spongy
pill with a piece of string on it.
Once in the gullet, she pulls
the pill out which gently scrapes cells from the gut wall
which she then tests for early signs of the condition.
Dr Fitzgerald said:
"Unfortunately most people aren't diagnosed - so they won't
know they've got it - until they get their cancer, by which
time its too late.
"So if we were able to diagnose
it at that stage we may be able to cure them - indeed if we
get people at the very early stages the cure rate is 80%."
Successful
trial
Alan Bridge is one of the first
people to try out the new pill on a string technique.
He said: "I didn't even feel
it. They told me that it would hurt a bit when it was pulled
out - but I didn't even know it was there."
Some people think that it is
the pace of life that is to blame for the rise in this type
of cancer.
Heartburn increases the risk of
the disease. More than 7,000 people die each year.
And the number of cases have
increased by 350% over the past 20 years.
Professor Ron Laskey, who also
works at the MRC Cancer Unit in Cambridge, said it was a
trend that is likely to continue.
"The thing that concerns us in
particular at present is that its increased extraordinarily
rapidly in the western world in the western world.
"It is the fastest growing
cancer at present, and its not clear why.
"One possibility is that acid
indigestion caused by high pressure lifestyles is a factor."
It will be a few years before
the test is more widely available.
