"Swish-and-spit" test screens for cancer (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A simple mouth rinse may provide anew way to screen for head and neck cancers in people at highrisk for these diseases, researchers said on Tuesday.

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center inBaltimore are developing a saliva test -- inexpensive, easy toperform and painless -- that could spot diseases like mouth andthroat cancer in heavy smokers, heavy drinkers and others athigh risk.

The screening test focuses on finding cells with geneticsignatures suggesting the presence of these cancers.

In this "swish-and-spit" test, patients were asked to brushthe inside of their mouths, then rinse and gargle with a saltsolution. The scientists filtered out cells in the rinsedsaliva that might contain one or more of 21 bits of chemicallyaltered genes associated with head and neck cancers.

Experts say the vast majority of head and neck cancer casesare linked to tobacco use, including smoking and smokelesstobacco. Heavy drinking also increases one's risk.

If found early, these cancers are often curable -- showingthe need for early detection of the tumors.

"We know who gets head and neck cancer -- people who smokeand drink a lot and tend to be at an older age. The problem isthat it's sometimes difficult to diagnose until it's at itslate stages and difficult to treat and cure," researcher Dr.Joseph Califano of the Johns Hopkins department of head andneck surgery said in a phone interview.

There is no screening test for head and neck cancers. "Soit would be nice to have an easy way to identify people at riskfor head and neck cancer that can be done by anybody -- anurse, a doctor, a PA (physician assistant)," he said.

The study appears in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

The mouth rinse test was given to 211 people with head andneck cancers and another 527 people who did not have thesediseases. It correctly identified more than half the peoplewith cancer as having the disease, Califano said.

The researchers have since made changes to improve thetest. "I think it's actually going to be really fairlyimpressive in terms of ability to detect stuff," said Califano,who expects it could be years before the test is widely used.

In the United States alone, about 13,000 people die ofcancers of the head and neck and about 55,000 develop thesecancers each year according to the American Academy ofOtolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery.