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Breath analysis to possibly help with cancer diagnosis

01/04/12

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Illinois are working to develop a new test that could improve the way lung cancer is diagnosed, easily producing quick and accurate results.

According to Voice of America, the machine the team is developing aims to diagnose lung cancer by analyzing a person's breath and identifying the composition of the organic compounds in it, which means patients would simply have to exhale to be tested.

Researchers tested the breath of 229 patients from the Cleveland Clinic, 92 of whom had confirmed lung cancer, while others had a high risk of developing it, determined by undefined growths in their lungs, the source reported.

“We found that we could be in the 80-85 percent accuracy range at detecting lung cancer from the breath signature," lead researcher Dr. Peter Mazzone said to the source. "We were a little more accurate if we looked for a very specific type of lung cancer rather than lung cancer in general. We found that we were able to characterize someone’s lung cancer that was in an advanced stage versus an early stage."

Researchers said that the machine and methods will require more testing before they can be widely adopted, but they are optimistic about the results tests showed.

According to the American Cancer Society, there were more than 370,000 Americans diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008. With numbers steadily increasing, Americans should look to life insurance as a way to prepare for unexpected health costs in the future.

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