Lisbon, Dec 3 (IANS): Portuguese researchers have claimed that they have developed a new method to diagnose stomach cancer by using 2D images.

The researchers' method, which was tested on a tumour suppression protein called e-cadherin, uses images to detect the amount and location of protein in a group of cells.

"Detecting a mutation is easy, but it's not so easy to know if it can lead to a functional protein or not," researcher Joao Sanches of the Universidad Tecnica de Lisboa told Xinhua Tuesday.

"What we are proposing is based on the images of those cells which are sophisticated and complex, to conclude if the protein is functional. By doing this we have reduced the time of the diagnosis and improved accuracy," he added.

The research was carried out by Joao Sances and Rauqel Seruca of the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto (Ipatimuo) and was published in the scientific magazine European Journal of Human Genetics.

Stomach cancer is the fourth most common form of cancer in the world, and the Ipatimup is one of the world's leading research institutions for stomach cancer.