
Your breath can be a dead giveaway that you’ve eaten garlic or onions, your exhaled vapor letting everyone in your radius in on your lunch menu.
Bad breath is one thing, but did you know that certain types of breath stenches can be indicators of underlying conditions or diseases? For example, “fishy” breath may signal a kidney or liver problem. And now, new research reveals how your breath could be a diagnostic tool to detect cancer.
When a tumour grows, it creates a cascade of changes to genes and/or proteins that can create emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Using a sensor likened to an “electronic nose”, researchers were able to not only distinguish between “healthy” breath and “cancerous” breath but also to detect what type of cancer is present.
Researchers noted the potential for such a diagnostic tool:
via British Journal of Cancer: The VOC signatures of the different types of cancer, with almost no overlapping among them, could lead to the development of a cost-effective, easy-to-use, portable, and non-invasive diagnostic tool for detecting lung, breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers through a single breath test, which could have a significant impact on cancer mortality through improved widespread screening.
The researchers are also hopeful that such a tool could distinguish stages of cancer and aid in the ongoing therapy and tracking of cancer recurrence.
Related: What your breath can tell you, How to prevent bad breath, How your taste buds could predict your cancer risk, Cancer staging