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Sniffing Out Cancer

Posted by Hemos on from the find-it-and-destroy-it dept.

Makarand writes "Researchers at the Univeristy of Rome are developing an electronic nose that can sniff out cancer by sampling people's breath. The instrument uses sensors that respond to the presence of chemical compounds in the patient's breath. For example, lung cancer patients exhale alkanes and benzene derivatives which the electronic nose will try to detect. The sensors are quartz crystal sensors coated with a substance that binds to a range of organic chemicals. If certain molecules in the breath bind to this surface coating they change the natural vibration frequency of the crystal."

5 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. I can even do this. by saskboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    "can sniff out cancer by sampling people's breath."

    Yeah, it is called cigarette smoke, and we've known it is a carcinogen for 40 years now. I do have trouble identifying which stench is the benzyne, and which is the nicotine though ;-)

    --
    Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
  2. What gasses... by thews · · Score: 5, Funny

    would they sample to check for colon cancer?

  3. Science put to good use? Wierd. by OwnerOfWhinyCat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Cheap tests are what HMOs love. If this test could be run for $5 a patient, they could add it to twice-yearly checkup for people over 55 and catch tumors when they are small and more cheaply removed. I kinda shrug when they invent new million dollar procedures for helping with a disease as they won't be in widespread use for many years, but cheap accurate tests like these could be saving thousands of lives a year, in just a few years. This seems very cool.

    It seems likely it comes at a cost though. The accuracy of chemical detection they are talking about would make for some damnably accurate breath and air analysis tools. I certainly hope we resolve our most recent bout of prohibition in the states before Breathalyzers that can detect days old residue in the lungs are on the hip of every officer in the state.

  4. Re:Only detects it, doesn't cure it by lylum · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Possible... but detection is the first step to the cure.
    It would just be as much scoial and economic discrimination if the patients would die because their cancer was detected too late. And the earlier it is detected, the higher are the chances for it to be cured.

  5. A good nurse can tell by the smell by Mondorescue · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My grandmother did this for 20+ years. As head matron of a major metropolitan hospital, she learned that patients suffering from certain ailments exuded certain odors through their pores and often their breath too. My girlfriend, a nurse, told me something similar. The skin is one of the body's organs for expelling toxins, so it's no surprise that we can tell what toxins are in a person's body, for example, by sniffing them.