A new breath test that detects lung cancer at an early, treatable stage, has us excited at FROG. We will be the lead U.S. participant in a new multinational trial evaluating this "artificial nose."

Preliminary data show that this new test -- called the artificial olfactory system -- is a promising, non-invasive tool that can discriminate between benign and malignant nodules with 80 to 90 percent accuracy.

A big part of the potential value for this test could be its ability to weed out false-positive results from CT scans. CT scanning is a proven way to reduce the mortality from lung cancer, but the process can also produce a significant number of false positives.

This artificial olfactory system, which detects cancer-associated volatile organic compounds exhaled from the lungs, could reduce the need for invasive follow-up procedures such as biopsies.  Here's the whole story, published in MedPage Today:

By Charles Bankhead, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Published: January 10, 2012

Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and

Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner

SAN DIEGO -- Assessment of chemicals in exhaled breath distinguished between benign and malignant pulmonary nodules with 80 to 90% accuracy, results of a small clinical study showed. The breath test also demonstrated 90% accuracy for distinguishing between small-cell and non-small cell lung cancer and early cancer from more advanced disease.

The test might help reduce the high false-positive rate associated with screening CT and possibly has a role as the initial screening test in high-risk patients, Nir Peled, MD, PhD, reported here at the Joint Conference on the Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer.

"The test works like an artificial nose that can distinguish signatures of exhaled volatile organic compounds [VOCs] associated with cancer from those that are not associated with cancer," Peled, of Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Israel, told MedPage Today.  "Use of the test for patients who have positive CT scans might help reduce the unnecessary biopsies and costs associated with false-positive scans."

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