Cancer-Causing Stomach Bug Has Become TWICE As Hard To Treat With Antibiotics In The Last 20 Years

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said superbugs are one of the biggest threats to the human race. It has named H. pylori - heavily linked to peptic ulcers and gastric cancer - among the most dangerous

●Experts measured resistance rates of Helicobacter pylori against antibiotics ●Rates against clarithromycin jumped from 10% in 1998 to almost 22% last year ●Professor Francis Megraud, author of the study, said the trend was ‘alarming’

Antibiotic resistance to a cancer-causing superbug has more than doubled in the space of two decades, scientists have warned. Rates of resistance of Helicobacter pylori against clarithromycin jumped from under 10 per cent in 1998 to almost 22% in 2018.

Professor Francis Megraud, a microbiologist at the University of Bordeaux, France, and lead author of the study, described the trend as 'alarming'. His team looked at clarithromycin, levofloxacin and metronidazole - the major anti-microbials used to kill H. pylori.

Rates of resistance of Helicobacter pylori against clarithromycin jumped from under 10%in 1998 to almost 22% in 2018

In the first study of its kind, they analyzed their effect on 1,232 patients scattered across 18 countries in Europe, including Ireland. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said superbugs are one of the biggest threats to the human race. It has named aggressive strains of H. pylori - heavily linked to peptic ulcers and gastric cancer - among the most dangerous. 

Professor Megraud said: 'H. pylori infection is already a complex condition to treat, requiring a combination of medications.' He said resistance rates for common antibiotics such as clarithromycin increase at an 'alarming rate of nearly 1% per year. Treatment options for H. pylori will become progressively limited and ineffective if novel treatment strategies remain undeveloped. The reduced efficacy of current therapies could maintain the high incidence rates of gastric cancer and other conditions such as peptic ulcer disease, if drug resistance continues to increase at this pace.'

H. pylori is one of the most common infections, present in up to one in two people. 

It can cause inflammation of the stomach lining, or gastritis, leading to peptic ulcers. The condition effects up to one in fifteen people in the UK alone. The bacteria is also one of the most important risk factors for gastric cancer, also known as stomach cancer - the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide. 

In recent years, H. pylori antibiotic resistance has become a prominent and urgent issue across the globe.

In Ireland, a quarter of patients (25.6%) were resistant to clarithromycin, the main drug for the bacteria - compared to just one in 20 (5%) in Denmark. Only five other nations fared worse - Italy (36.9%), Croatia (34.6%), Greece (30%), Poland (28.5%) and Bulgaria (26.9%). The UK was not looked at in the study, presented at a meeting in Barcelona held by the United European Gastroenterology. 

Professor Megraud’s team now plan to compare the data with the level of antibiotic consumption in the individual countries. Prof Mario Dinis-Ribeiro, the president of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, said: 'The findings are certainly concerning.

'H. pylori is the main cause of peptic disease and gastric cancer. The increasing resistance of H. pylori to a number of commonly-used antibiotics may jeopardize prevention strategies.'

England's outgoing chief medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies has warned antibiotic resistance risks 'putting medicine back in the dark ages'.

Originally published on DAILY MAIL UK

NEWS POST: CANCER BREATH TEST: The Cancer ‘Breathalyzer’: Test Being Trialled By British Scientists Could Spot Disease Early And Revolutionize Diagnosis

A major trial of the technology (pictured) – involving 1,500 patients over two years – is now being launched

A breathalyzer test being developed by British scientists could revolutionize cancer diagnosis. The test is designed to pick up early signs of the disease which enter the breath and become airborne – slashing the need for biopsies. Doctors say it could save thousands of lives each year.

The technique relies on a pioneering device that can detect chemicals given off by cancerous tumours. A major trial of the technology – involving 1,500 patients over two years – is now being launched. The test could replace current screening programmes within a decade.

Dr David Crosby, from Cancer Research UK, said: ‘It sounds futuristic but it’s very much a real thing and the potential is enormous. If you find cancer early, the potential for treatment is much higher. In a lot of cases, we simply don’t have good tests for finding very early cancers because they don’t have symptoms.

‘So having a test which is relatively cheap – and non-invasive so you don’t have to take a biopsy – would be a huge advantage. Essentially it’s a breathalyzer for cancer.’

The UK lags behind the rest of Europe when it comes to cancer survival rates, which experts blame on a failure to diagnose it earlier. More than 17,000 Britons die each year because the disease is not spotted quickly enough. While biopsies or other invasive tests take time to organize, the breathalyzer could be operated in a GP’s surgery.

The technology is the brainchild of Cambridge scientist Billy Boyle, who developed it after his wife died from colon cancer at the age of 36. Kate Gross – who had been an adviser to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – died in 2014.

●Test is designed to pick up early signs of the disease which enter the breath ●It would slash the need for biopsies and could save thousands of lives a year ●Technique relies on a pioneering device that can detect chemicals from tumours

Mr Boyle said the loss of his ‘inspirational’ wife – with whom he had twin boys – spurred him to co-found development firm Owlstone Medical in the hope of helping others get early treatment.

The test works by spotting waste products given off by cancer cells, which are known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These find their way into a patient’s breath through the bloodstream, in a similar way to alcohol.

The technique relies on a pioneering device that can detect chemicals given off by cancerous tumours

In the trial being carried out at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, patients will be asked to breathe into the device for ten minutes. It will collect the airborne molecules before they are sent to a laboratory for analysis.

Patients can expect to have their results within a few days, rather than the two weeks it typically takes for a biopsy.

Scientists also believe that different cancers will cause recognizable alterations in the VOCs, allowing them to determine the chemical signatures for each. Initially, patients with suspected oesophageal and stomach cancers will be given the test before it is extended to include prostate, kidney, bladder, liver and pancreatic cancers.

The trial is being run by Cancer Research UK alongside Owlstone Medical.

Dr Crosby added: ‘The concept is that if you look for those waste products, then you’ll be able to spot whether or not there’s a cancer and what sort it might be.

‘It’s early stages but there are lots of promising signals that look like you will get a different signature from a cancer in your gut than you would from one in your lung, pancreas or anywhere else.’

In the UK, there are 360,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed every year. Of these, half are detected at a late stage, drastically reducing a person’s survival chances. However, rapid advances in technology mean scientists can now detect early signs of cancer that are equivalent to a fraction of a grain of sand. Similarly, a greater understanding of the biology of cancer means researchers are now confident they know what to look for.

Lead researcher Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, said the best way to improve survival rates was through early detection. She said: ‘We urgently need to develop new tools – like this breath test – which could help to detect and diagnose cancer earlier, giving patients the best chance of surviving. Through this trial we hope to find signatures needed to detect cancers earlier. It’s the crucial next step in developing this technology.’

Mr Boyle said that the breath test could work alongside other methods of diagnosis. He added: ‘There is increasing potential for breath-based tests to aid diagnosis, sitting alongside blood and urine tests in an effort to help doctors detect and treat disease. The concept of providing a whole-body snapshot in a completely non-invasive way is very powerful and could reduce harm by sparing patients from more invasive tests that they don’t need. Our technology has proven to be extremely effective at detecting VOCs in the breath, and we are proud to be working with Cancer Research UK as we look to apply it towards the incredibly important area of detecting early-stage disease in a range of cancers.’

Originally published on DAILY MAIL UK