Nanotech Breath Test Can Detect Lung Cancer

A device developed by a team of Israeli, American, and British cancer researchers is capable of accurately detecting lung cancer and identifying its stage of progression.

The breathalyzer-type tester, embedded with a nanotech chip dubbed the NaNose, can literally "sniff out" cancer tumors. The cancer sniffer was developed by Nir Peled, MD, PhD, of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine; Hossam Haick, PhD, the inventor of the NaNose technology, of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; and Fred Hirsch, MD, PhD, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver.

A study, presented at a recent American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago, was conducted on 358 patients who were either diagnosed with or at risk for lung cancer. The study showed that the device and subsequent analysis accurately sorted healthy people from people with early-stage lung cancer 85 percent of the time, and healthy people from those with advanced lung cancer 82 percent of the time. The test also accurately distinguished between early and advanced lung cancer 79 percent of the time.

Peled says, "Our new device combines several novel technologies with a new concept--using exhaled breath as a medium of diagnosing cancer. Our NaNose was able to detect lung cancer with 90 percent accuracy even when the lung nodule was tiny and hard to sample. It was even able to discriminate between subtypes of cancer, which was unexpected."

According to a release on ScienceDaily, lung cancer tumors produce chemicals called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which easily evaporate into the air and produce a discernible scent profile. "Prof. Haick harnessed nanotechnology to develop the highly sensitive NaNose chip, which detects the unique "signature" of VOCs in exhaled breath," the release continues. "In four out of five cases, the device differentiated between benign and malignant lung lesions and even different cancer subtypes."

"The device could prove valuable in helping determine patients who need more intensive screening for lung cancer," said  Peled. "We're hoping to have a device that would be able to give you a go/no-go result--something's wrong, go get an X-ray."

The Boston-based company Alpha Szenszor has licensed the technology and hopes to introduce it to the market within the next few years. Meanwhile, the researchers have developed a new, smaller version of the device that can plug into a computer's USB port.

Stephen Levy is a contributor to Qmed and MPMN.