Patients being tested for oesophageal and gastric (stomach) cancers may in the future get to avoid having a camera placed down their throat and instead undergo a simple breath test.

International researchers have developed a breath test which can provide a result in minutes. A clinical study involving 210 patients in the UK found the test to be 90% accurate.

According to the researchers, the test could save health services a significant amount of money, as it is cheaper, faster and easier to use than current methods. Doctors usually diagnose oesophageal and gastric cancers with an endoscopy, which is when a camera is placed inside the body via the mouth.

"The current method for detecting these cancers is expensive, invasive and a diagnosis is usually made at a late stage and often the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. This makes it harder to treat and results in poor long-term survival rates.

"Our breath test could address these problems because it can help diagnose patients with early non-specific symptoms, as well as reduce the number of invasive endoscopies carried out on patients, which often lead to negative results," explained the study's lead author, Prof George Hanna, of Imperial College London.

He emphasised that diagnosis at an early stage ‘could give patients more treatment options and ultimately save more lives'.

Some 400 patients at three hospitals in London will now take part in another trial of the breath test. Patients taking the test must breathe into a device that looks like a breathalyser.

Details of the findings so far are published in the journal, Annals of Surgery.