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Earlier this year, Japanese researchers announced that they had trained a dog to detect colon cancer by smelling the poop of cancer victims. Now, reseachers at Schillerhoehe Hospital in Germany have discovered that trained dogs can detect lung cancer by sniffing the breath of sick patients:
The dogs successfully identified 71 samples with lung cancer out of a possible 100. They also correctly detected 372 samples that did not have lung cancer out of a possible 400.
The dogs could also detect lung cancer independently from COPD and tobacco smoke. These results confirm the presence of a stable marker for lung cancer that is independent of COPD and also detectable in the presence of tobacco smoke, food odours and drugs.
Link -via io9 | Photo: European Lung Foundation
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Israeli scientists have invented a breathalyzer-type device that can detect chemical markers for lung cancer in a patient’s breaths.
The sensor relies on a film of gold nanoparticles, which conducts electricity, layered over a carbon-based substrate. When a patient breathes into the device, particulates in the breath accumulate on the carbon layer and the sensor swells pushing the gold nanoparticles further apart, which, in turn, alters the resistance of the film. Each type of particulate has a unique effect on the resistance which can be measured by having a current flow through the sensor. “The user gets a figure on the device’s display panel that indicates whether the person is healthy or has cancer” [Physics World], says lead researcher Hossam Haick.
The new device can detect smaller amounts of the target chemicals and therefore diagnose lung cancer earlier, when treatments can be more successful. Link
