CLEVELAND, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- A new, color-coded breath test can pick up lung cancer with "moderate accuracy" even in its early stages, according to researchers at the Cleveland Clinic.
Peter Mazzone, lead author of the study, explained that metabolic changes in lung-cancer cells cause changes in the production and processing of volatile organic compounds released in the breath that can be detected by a chemical color sensor.
He and his team tested 21 healthy people and 122 people with different types of respiratory disease (including 49 with small cell lung cancer) and found that the color sensor accurately spotted the presence of malignancy in just fewer than 75 percent of those affected, regardless of age, gender or stage of disease.
The authors said that other attempts to screen for lung cancer using breath testing and gas chromatography or mass spectrometry failed because these techniques are expensive and require expertise to use. The color sensor test is inexpensive, easy to perform and non-invasive, and the authors said they hope it can be developed into a standard diagnostic tool that will pick up lung cancer when it can be effectively treated. They added that, since the early stages of the disease often produce no symptoms or non-specific symptoms, the problem is usually not picked up until it is advanced, creating a worldwide mortality rate of 90 percent.
For more information, see the advance online issue for March of the journal Thorax, which can be found at http://press.psprings.co.uk/thx/february/tx72892.pdf.
