Breath Test Could Diagnose Colorectal Cancer - kcentv.com - KCEN HD - Waco, Temple, and Killeen

(KCEN) -- A simple breath test could one day diagnose colorectal cancer.

A colonoscopy is currently used to screen for colon cancer, but it's an invasive procedure that can be unpleasant to prepare for.

Now a new study finds a breath test is able to identify patients with colorectal cancer with a 75 percent accuracy rate.

It detects compounds in the breath that are produced by cancer tissue, which metabolizes differently than healthy cells.

Breath sampling is still in the early phases of development, but researchers believe these results are encouraging.