Their portable breath collection apparatus (BCA) can collect breath samples anywhere. While breathing into it for two minutes, the BCA captures breath VOCs onto a small sorbent trap, which is then sent to a lab for analysis by gas chromatography and mass spectoscopy, which usually identifies more than 200 VOCs. The BCA also collects a sample of the room air at the same time, so that the inhaled VOCs can be subtracted from the exhaled breath VOCs, so as to calculate the “signal” coming from the body. Some doctors believe that the breath test may be more sensitive than a blood test, because in the two minutes it takes to collect your breath, all the blood in your body gets filtered through your lungs, instead of a limited amount of blood that can be collected during a blood test.
This new breath test has identified a comprehensive set of markers, or “breath fingerprints” for various diseases. “Every disease we look at seems to have its own fingerprint, or its own special pattern,” said Dr. Michael Phillips of Menssana Research. “So the pattern of these breath markers is totally different, say, in lung cancer than it would be in breast cancer.” Phillips claims that in preliminary tests, the machine was able to detect breast cancer, lung cancer, heart disease and organ transplant rejection. In one study, the test detected around 80 percent of lung cancers. The test is currently being evaluated in several clinical studies, including lung cancer, breast cancer, heart transplant rejection, kidney disease, ischemic heart disease and diabetes mellitus.
If all goes well, a breath test may become the standard method of preliminary screening to detect diseases in their earliest stages. If the test detects something suspicious, standard tests could then be applied. But if the test is negative, patients could be told with great certainty that they don’t have diseases like breast cancer or lung cancer, thus saving them from having to endure biopsies or other invasive procedures needlessly.