Dr Katherine Free from Pancreatic Cancer UK said following a previous successful trial of the breath test, it was now moving to “an advanced clinical trial”.
The test would then be given to thousands of people with an unknown diagnosis – people who have “suspicious symptoms that could be pancreatic cancer, or could be something else”.
“This is one of the major challenges of pancreatic cancer,” she said.
“The symptoms are very vague. It’s things like indigestion, back pain, changes to your poo, weight loss. So they could be pancreatic cancer, but they could also be lots of other different conditions as well.”
There is currently no early detection test to help doctors, but Free said if the clinical trial showed it could accurately detect pancreatic cancer, it could be “a game changer” for patients around the UK.
