A study has identified four proteins associated with the onset of oesophageal cancer, the precursor to developing a blood test for early detection and better treatment of a particularly lethal disease.

The findings - by doctors at Allegheny Health Network, the University of Pittsburgh, Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York and an Amsterdam medical centre - were published online on Tuesday by the journal Cancer.

The federally supported study occurred over four years.

"Oesophageal cancer patients often have few options available to fight this disease, and five-year survival rates are extremely low at about 15 per cent," Blair Jobe, director of Allegheny Health Network's Oesophageal and Thoracic Institute and the study's lead researcher, said in a statement.

According to the National Cancer Institute, 18,170 cases will be diagnosed this year, and 15,450 people who have the disease will die. According to the new study, the incidence of oesophageal cancer is up 600 per cent since the 1970s.


Copyright AAP 2014