Electronic nose sniffs out asbestos cancer ? Mick Knighton ...

A breath test using an e-nose is sniffing out early stage malignant asbestos-related cancers is being researched in Australia

Deborah Yates is Associate Professor at St Vincent?s Clinical School at the University of New South Wales where they are developing a new test to identify whether or not a patient has the asbestos-related disease of mesothelioma

?Researchers at the University of New South Wales are designing a non-invasive test which would help detect and distinguish between benign and malignant disease.?The electronic nose is widely used to sniff out food contaminants and explosives and is now being modified to identify mesothelioma which globally kills up to 20,000 people each year.

Asbestos was commonly used in Australia and Associate Professor Deborah Yates, the study?s team leader believes a breath test would be particularly suited for screening the old and infirm patients as well as the very young.

?They are hoping to develop something which is quick and easy for the patient and also which can be used in people who are elderly and quite unwell, because it?s very difficult for patients to go through a whole load of different tests and also to go through the time that it takes to get all the results of those tests, not only physically but also psychologically.?

There is a lot of research now looking at the molecular basis, the underlying genetic and cellular changes in mesothelioma and if we could identify the appropriate target and develop the right sort of drug, then we might well be able to help people as has occurred with other types of lung cancers, specific types of lung cancers where we know that there?s a specific molecular change and we can target that with a particular drug.

Associate Professor Deborah Yates? says ??A much larger study? is needed in order to ensure that our findings were valid in the first place and also in order to be able to see how well the nose performs in the clinical setting, so in someone who is actually a normal human being who occasionally gets things like flu, who occasionally get other things going on, who has a whole load of different drugs that they?re taking, all of those things, because, of course, research studies are very selected patients.

?Do you think it?s going to be possible to continue using your breath test to check on the progress of treatments of the disease as it progresses?

At present is is already being done for other cancers by other groups. Breast cancer, for example and lung cancer is another one. It?s also being used in prostate cancer and there are groups all around the world that are working on this particular area. The Dutch in particular have been very forward thinking in this regard and they have looked at the number of different cancers and interestingly, a Dutch group who we actually know quite well have produced almost identical results to ours with mesothelioma.

The other area that we are working on is its use in other types of lung diseases, like asthma, emphysema and the rarer types of lung disease.

At the moment, it?s just a research tool, but obviously the more that we can do to study things quickly and the more international work that we can do to gain the numbers the quicker it will be available? .

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Source: http://www.mkmrf.org/2012/09/electronic-nose-sniffs-out-asbestos-cancer/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=electronic-nose-sniffs-out-asbestos-cancer

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