Breath test able to spot lung cancer

[Al-khiyal]

A breath test using coloured dots can show whether a patient has lung cancer, even in the early stages of the disease, a study published today in the British specialist journal Thorax says.

While the test is promising, it still cannot match the sensitivity of a dog's nose, which so far has proved the most reliable detector.

People with lung cancer exhale a unique chemical signature, known as volatile organic compounds.

The colourimetric sensor, about the size of a coin, comprises 36 chemically sensitive dots impregnated on a disposable cartridge. The dots change colour when they come into contact with volatile organic compounds.

The study, led by Dr Peter Mazzone at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, found the device could accurately predict the presence of cancer in 73.3 per cent of the people. With further fine tuning the sensor could be developed into a useful clinical test, the study said.

Scientists have been working on breath testing for cancer since 1985, using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. However, the machines are expensive and need advanced training for doctors to use.

Associate Professor Matthew Peters, a respiratory physician at Concord Repatriation General Hospital, said the technology would work well in conjunction with existing computed tomography technology to determine which patients would need further tests.

Lung cancer killed 7,500 Australians each year, three times more than breast cancer, he said.

Dr Jonathan Rutland, a thoracic physician and associate professor at the University of NSW, said the device was not yet accurate enough for clinical practice, but it would remove the risk of radiation of current screening methods.

"Some people with lung cancer have either advanced disease or other illnesses, making it difficult to use invasive techniques to make a definite diagnosis," he said. "A technique like this, even if it's not highly accurate, can indicate to doctors when they should perhaps be more persistent in testing."

Despite promising results, the canine nose was still the most accurate sensor of lung cancer, the study found. A double-blind study published last year found dogs had a 99 per cent accuracy rate when detecting patients with lung cancer.

Breath test able to spot lung cancer

[Al-khiyal]

Thorax - An international journal of respiratory medicine

[Bent_Bladi]

that's AMAZING!! but i wonder how canine tests would work... do they shove a dog's nose down the patient's throat? what if he sneezes (ew)... j/k... i mean, how will they tell if the dog smelt anything, it's not like he'll take a sniff and come out and say "yep, that's definitely an organic compound".

...interesting, very interesting

[Al-khiyal]

that's AMAZING!! but i wonder how canine tests would work...

January 6, 2006 - - In a society where lung and breast cancers are leading causes of cancer death worldwide, early detection of the disease is highly desirable. In a new scientific study, researchers present astonishing new evidence that man's best friend, the dog, may have the capacity to contribute to the process of early cancer detection.

In this study which will be published in the March 2006 issue of the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies published by SAGE Publications, researchers reveal scientific evidence that a dog's extraordinary scenting ability can distinguish people with both early and late stage lung and breast cancers from healthy controls. The research, which was performed in California, was recently documented by the BBC in the United Kingdom, and is soon to be aired in the United States.

Other scientific studies have documented the abilities of dogs to identify chemicals that are diluted as low as parts per trillion. The clinical implications of canine olfaction first came to light in the case report of a dog alerting its owner to the presence of a melanoma by constantly sniffing the skin lesion. Subsequent studies published in major medical journals confirmed the ability of trained dogs to detect both melanomas and bladder cancers. The new study, led by Michael McCulloch of the Pine Street Foundation in San Anselmo, California, and Tadeusz Jezierski of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Genetics and Animal Breeding, is the first to test whether dogs can detect cancers only by sniffing the exhaled breath of cancer patients.

In this study, five household dogs were trained within a short 3-week period to detect lung or breast cancer by sniffing the breath of cancer participants. The trial itself was comprised of 86 cancer patients (55 with lung cancer and 31 with breast cancer) and a control sample of 83 healthy patients. All cancer patients had recently been diagnosed with cancer through biopsy-confirmed conventional methods such as a mammogram, or CAT scan and had not yet undergone any chemotherapy treatment. During the study, the dogs were presented with breath samples from the cancer patients and the controls, captured in a special tube. Dogs were trained to give a positive identification of a cancer patient by sitting or lying down directly in front of a test station containing a cancer patient sample, while ignoring control samples. Standard, humane methods of dog training employing food rewards and a clicker, as well as assessment of the dog's behavior by observers blinded to the identity of the cancer patient and control samples, were used in the experiment.

The results of the study showed that dogs can detect breast and lung cancer with sensitivity and specificity between 88% and 97%. The high accuracy persisted even after results were adjusted to take into account whether the lung cancer patients were currently smokers. Moreover, the study also confirmed that the trained dogs could even detect the early stages of lung cancer, as well as early breast cancer. The researchers concluded that breath analysis has the potential to provide a substantial reduction in the uncertainty currently seen in cancer diagnosis, once further work has been carried out to standardize and expand this methodology.

Can dogs smell cancer?

Michael McCulloch, Tadeusz Jezierski, Michael Broffman, Alan Hubbard, Kirk Turner, and Teresa Janecki:
Diagnostic Accuracy of Canine Scent Detection in Early- and Late-Stage Lung and Breast Cancers
Integrative Cancer Therapies March 1 2006, Volume 5, No. 1 (.pdf)

[Bent_Bladi]

Thanks!! That's a good first step for detection