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Stool Tests Might Help Spot Early Pancreatic Cancer

Stool tests might provide a useful way to help doctors spot early pancreatic cancer, say researchers.

They have been trialling the concept in a study with 136 volunteers.

The findings, described in the journal Gut, suggest detectable changes involving gut bugs could provide a warning sign that a tumour is present.

Pancreatic cancer often doesn’t cause symptoms in the early stages. That means it is usually more advanced and harder to treat when it is found.

As the cancer grows it may cause vague symptoms, such as indigestion, changes to bowel habit and some tummy or back pain. Some people see their GP several times before being diagnosed.

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

The Spanish team behind the work recruited patients from two hospitals – one in Madrid and the other in Barcelona. Only some of the patients had pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, while the others were selected as controls for comparison.

The researchers 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 ones did show a difference that the team believe could be useful for helping to diagnose pancreatic cancer.

It was a distinct pattern or genomic profile of gut bacteria, fungi and other microbes.

This consistently identified patients with the disease, irrespective of how far it had progressed, suggesting that characteristic microbiome signatures emerge early on and that the stool microbiome might pick up early stage disease, say the researchers.

They recommend more studies – and some are already taking place.

Independent researchers in Germany have validated the findings in a small number of patients, and the test is also being trialled in Japan.

Source: Stool tests might help spot early pancreatic cancer – BBC News

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Critics: By: Samuel Lovett

Stool samples could soon be analyzed to help detect pancreatic cancer after scientists identified microorganisms that appear to place individuals at greater risk of developing the illness. In a study of 136 people, scientists found that 27 different microbes were abundant in the stool samples of those diagnosed with the most common form of pancreatic cancer.

This “microbial profile” consistently identified patients with the disease, irrespective of how far it had progressed, raising hope that a new screening test could be developed to diagnose pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is deadly and can be very difficult to treat, with only around one in four people surviving one year or more after diagnosis. Dr Helen Rippon, chief executive of Worldwide Cancer Research, which helped fund the study, said: “This new breakthrough builds on the growing evidence that the microbiome – the collection of microorganisms that live side by side with the cells inside our body – is linked to the development of cancer.

References

“Can pancreatic cancer be prevented?”. American Cancer Society. 11 June 2014. Archived from the original on 13 November 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2014.

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