New Breathalyzer Test May 'Sniff Out' Lung Cancer in Patients

There may be a new way to detect cancer, and it's through a relatively simple and non-invasive test: the breathalyzer test. Scientists have equipped the breathalyzer test with a "NaNose" nanotech chip in order to "sniff out" cancer tumors.

Lung cancer causes more deaths in the U.S. than the next three most common cancers combined-colon, breath and pancreatic cancer. The reason why lung cancer has such a high mortality rate is mostly due to poor detection. That's why developing new methods of detection is crucial to lowering the incidence of death.

"Lung cancer is a devastating disease, responsible for almost 2,000 deaths in Israel annually-a third of all cancer-related deaths," said Nir Peled, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Lung cancer diagnoses require invasive procedures such as bronchoscopies, computer-guided biopsies, or surgery. Our new device combines several novel technologies with a new concept-using exhaled breath as a medium of diagnosing cancer."

In order to test their device, the researchers examined 358 patients who were either diagnosed with or at risk for lung cancer. The device sampled for chemicals produced by lung cancer tumors, called volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In the end, they found that the NaNose could detect lung cancer with 90 percent accuracy, even if the lung nodule was tiny and hard to sample. In fact, the NaNose could even discriminate between subtypes of cancer.

"Cancer cells not only have a different and unique smell or signature, you can evil discriminate between subtypes and advancement of the disease," said Peled in a news release. "The bigger the tumor, the more robust the signature."

The findings could mean a new way to detect lung cancer in patients. More specifically, it could be an early test to see whether a patient needs more intensive screening for lung cancer. Because it's non-invasive, it could mean a better way to detect lung cancer, which could lower the amount of deaths in the future.

The findings were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago.