A new method for detecting bowel cancer is more than 90% accurate at predicting which higher-risk people will develop the disease, according to research. About 500,000 people in the UK live with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's and ulcerative colitis.

Research that has not yet been peer-reviewed shows the newest blood test is more than 80% accurate in detecting colon cancer in people who had the disease. The test is 90% accurate in ruling out cancer in healthy adults, according to the study published Monday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The method could be used to develop a blood test to identify inflammatory-bowel-disease patients most at risk.

A new DNA test developed in the UK can accurately predict whether high-risk patients will develop colorectal cancer in the five years. People with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) — which includes conditions like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s — are up to four times more likely to get this type of cancer,