Sponge could helpto prevent cancer

The “Cytosponge” provides a better way of identifying a pre-cancerous condition called Barrett’s oesophagus.

The condition can occur in people with a long history of heartburn. It is the main risk factor for oesophageal cancer, which affects the gullet connecting the mouth to the stomach.

Once diagnosed, patients with the cancer have only a one in 10 chance of surviving five years.

Using the Cytosponge could help doctors to spot the warning signs of oesophageal cancer early and save lives, researchers believe.

The device is a swallowable capsule attached to a length of string which expands in the stomach into a three centimetre-wide sponge-like mesh.

Five minutes after being swallowed it is removed through the mouth by pulling on the string, the scientists report in the British Medical Journal today.

The sponge collects cells which are analysed in a laboratory for signs of the tissue changes typical of Barrett’s oesophagus.

In a test of the device, doctors assessed 500 patients between the ages of 50 and 70 and found three per cent had the condition.

Dr Rebecca Fitzgerald, from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cancer Cell Unit in Cambridge, said: “The UK has the highest level of this form of oesophageal cancer in Europe, and cases in the Western world have risen rapidly over the past twenty years.

“As oesophageal cancer carries such a bleak prognosis for patients, it has become more and more obvious that a safe, minimally invasive and easily administered method of diagnosis for Barrett’s oesophagus is urgently needed.”