A breath test developed by researchers, similar to those used for alcohol enforcement, can now detect lung cancer.
Findings were presented at The American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago over the weekend, where the demonstrated device was shown to have accurately assessed four out of five patients tested during the trial,
Health Day reported via U.S. News and World Report.
"This could totally revolutionize lung cancer screening and diagnosis" with a "non-traumatic, easy, cheap approach to early detection and differentiation of lung cancer," said Dr. Fred Hirsch, the study's co-author at the University of Colorado Cancer Center.
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The new test asks patients to blow into a balloon that is then attached to a gold nanoparticle sensor that has been developed over the years to be more sensitive. It can now sense particles down to one part per trillion.
"Cancer cells not only have a different and unique smell or signature, you can even discriminate between subtypes and determine disease burden," said another study co-author Dr. Nir Peled, an oncologist at the Davidoff Cancer Center in Israel. "The more tumor you have, the more robust signature you produce."
According to the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 160,000 people died of lung cancer in 2010, and among cancers it is the most deadly, often because symptoms don't appear until the cancer is too advanced to stop. Early detection through routine breath tests could cut this number significantly.
"We know that screening people for lung cancer can substantially impact survival. If we can do it cheaply, this would be a go-to test," said Dr. Jyoti Patel, oncologist at Northwestern University in Chicago.
More than 350 people in the U.S. and Israel participated in the study, 213 of which had lung cancer.
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