RESEARCHERS have developed a tool in the form of an electronic nose that can sniff out cancer cells through our breath. This tool is able to distinguish between people who are diseased and healthy.The researchers also believe the tool is useful to identify patients with head and neck cancer is often diagnosed late. They also have collected breath samples from 82 people with head and neck cancer, lung cancer, or who were free of cancer.
Tool named Nano Artificial Nose (NA-Nose) could distinguish molecular breath head and neck cancer patients with healthy individuals. NA-Nose can also distinguish between lung cancer patients and healthy people as well as between the head and neck cancer patients with lung cancer.
Lead researcher Professor Hossam Haick of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology said, "There is an urgent need to develop new ways of detecting head and neck cancer. Especially since the diagnosis of disease is relatively complicated because it requires specialist investigation."
"Our research has shown that 'breath test' simple molecules able to see patterns in head and neck cancer patients in the study of small scale."
"We now need to test these results in larger studies to discover whether this method could create a potential screening method."
The study is published in the Journal of Cancer Research April 2011 edition.