Stool tests might help detect early pancreatic cancer

Researchers have said stool tests may provide a helpful way to help doctors detect early pancreatic cancer.

 

The concept has been trialled in a study with 136 volunteers and the findings suggest detectable changes involving gut bugs could provide a warning sign that a tumour is present.

 

As the disease often doesn’t cause symptoms in the early stages, it is usually more advanced and harder to treat once it is found.

 

Currently, fewer than one in 20 of those with the common form of the cancer, ductal adenocarcinoma, will survive for five or more years.  Earlier detection would improve those odds.

 

The team involved in the research which took place in Madrid and Barcelona, collected and analysed spit and stool samples from the volunteers to see if there was any discernible difference between the groups.  While the saliva samples drew a blank, the stool samples showed a difference that the team believe could be useful for helping to diagnose the disease.

 

It was a distinct pattern or genomic profile of gut bacteria, fungi and other microbes, which consistently identified patients with the disease, irrespective of how far it had progressed, which the researchers say suggested that characteristic microbiome signatures emerge early on and that the stool microbiome might pick up early stage disease.

 

More studies were recommended, and some are already taking place.

 

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

 

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