Breath test could save lives by detecting cancer early

Researchers have developed a breath test that can detect cancer prior to sufferers experience any signs. The new breath test could transfigure the way tumours are speckled and save millions of lives by early diagnosis and treatment. This test could diagnose four most widespread forms of cancers such as lung, bowel, breast and prostate cancer.

This process uses minute sensors which can lift up chemicals on the breath that are unconfined from the surface of cancer cells when tumours start to develop. Various types of cancer exude various chemicals. Researchers behind the invention think that is could be an easier and effective way to diagnose cancer.

In breath test, patients blew into an apparatus looked like a plastic bag. The samples of breath of the patients were filtered and stored in an airtight container. Then they passed through a machine containing censors which could identify if they contained any chemical made by breast, bowel, lung and prostate cancer tumours.

People with family history of cancers could have regular breath tests because they are most at risk of developing tumours. Until now the researchers had tested the mechanism on one hundred and seventy-seven people who were healthy or had been already diagnosed with tumours, reported the study published in the British Journal of Cancer.

The study demonstrates that an electronic nose can differentiate between healthy and malignant breath. It can also discriminate between the breaths of patients with different types of cancer. If they can corroborate these first outcomes in large-scale studies then the new technology could become a simple instrument to early diagnose cancer along with imaging, said lead researcher Professor Abraham Kuten.

These outcomes are appealing and show that there is the potential to develop a single breath test to detect these cancers. Amplification the methods for early diagnosis of cancer as well as improved treatments will have a significant impact on cutting death rates, said Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK.