Electronic nose gets the scent of lung cancer

11.45am

LONDON - Italian scientists have developed an electronic nose that can detect lung cancer by smelling distinctive compounds in the breath of patients.

The University of Rome researchers believe the device could form the basis of a simple test to diagnose the illness that kills more than a million people worldwide each year.

"Carrado Di Natale, the electronics expert developing the e-nose says doctors might one day use a hypersensitive version of the device to screen smokers and other high-risk groups for lung cancer as part of a routine check-up," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.

An electronic nose with eight quartz crystal sensors correctly and quickly identified the 35 patients with large lung tumours in a test on 60 people at Rome's Forianini Hospital.

Certain illnesses can produce tell-tale compounds sufferers exhale. People with lung cancer breathe out a variety of alkanes and benzene derivatives, the magazine reported.

Di Natale and his team said they would have to improve the sensitivity of the nose before it would be able to sniff out lung cancer in its earliest stages.

Although it would be less accurate than a bronchoscope, which looks inside a patient's lungs, the researchers said a breath tester would be much easier to use and less invasive.

- REUTERS