A new study looks at whether a breath test can predict stomach cancer. Photo by Maridav/Shutterstock

HAIFA, Israel, April 13 (UPI) -- A new breath test may be able to indicate whether someone is at high risk for stomach cancer.

A study looked at how reliable the breath test might be and found promising results. The test picks up "breath prints," which means it finds compounds that are associated with cancer risk. Of the 484 people included in the study, the test was 92 percent accurate at judging which ones had some level of stomach cancer.


"The attraction of this test lies in its non-invasiveness, ease of use, rapid predictiveness, and potentially low cost," said author Professor Hossam Haick, Department of Chemical Engineering and Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Haifa, Israel, according to The Telegraph.

A larger study needs to be conducted to confirm the results, but if the larger study finds the test to be accurate, it could become commonly used. The study was published in the journal Gut.