Breath test could provide cancer diagnosis

Early research suggests that it may one day be possible to detect common forms of cancer by performing a simple breath test.

Scientists have shown that sensors are capable of distinguishing between breath from healthy patients and that of people with cancer.

Furthermore, their studies suggest the sensors can also tell the difference between cancers of the lung, breast, bowel and prostate.

The preliminary results were published in the British Journal of Cancer and scientists will now need to conduct larger studies to determine whether the link between breath and cancer detection is strong enough to provide a viable diagnostic technique.

Co-author Professor Abraham Kuten, from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, commented: "If we can confirm these initial results in large-scale studies, this new technology could become a simple tool for early diagnosis of cancer along with imaging."

Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, emphasised that the research is currently at a very early stage, but described the results as "interesting".