The authors noted that with fecal occult blood testing and the Cytosponge test, multiple episodes of testing were known to increase the sensitivity, so this could be another area for future research in breath testing.
The breath test was seen as something that could be used in primary care to identify patients with nonspecific symptoms who should be referred for endoscopy.
“This view has been endorsed by our recent finding that the diagnostic model for OGC [oesophagogastric cancer] is different from that for colorectal cancer, providing the concept for a single breath test for multiple gastrointestinal cancers,” the authors wrote.
“If a clinician is presented with a patient with gastrointestinal symptoms that do not prompt referral based on NICE [National Institute for Health and Care Excellence] criteria, he/she would not need to watch and wait to see if symptoms worsen but could offer the exhaled breath test immediately.”