Ivanhoe's Medical Breakthroughs: Breast Cancer Breath Test

[Guest guest]

Breast Cancer Breath Test

Reported April 15, 2010

ATLANTA (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Every year, millions of U.S. women will have mammograms to find out if they have breast cancer. These tests can be frightening, uncomfortable, even painful, but for women -- especially those over 40 -- mammograms can provide the early detection that saves lives. Now, a new breath test is designed to "smell out" breast cancer.

Carol Witcher says her dog Floyd Henry knew something was wrong even before she did.

"He looked at me strangely and pushed and snorted my right breast and pushed and snorted and pushed and snorted, and I'm thinking, 'Something's not right,'" Witcher recalled to Ivanhoe.

Turns out, Floyd Henry was on the right track. Witcher was diagnosed with breast cancer. This breath test confirmed the diagnosis.

The experimental test measures organic compounds breathed out from the lungs, and identifies those associated with breast cancer.

"The big difference is now, you go in you get your breast crushed," Charlene Bayer, Ph.D., principal research scientist at Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta, said. "What this does, you just breathe into it and we measure just from the breath."

In a pilot study, this test was 77 percent accurate in distinguishing cancer from non-cancer. For mammogram, it's 80 percent. For women, this could one day mean a painless, instant screening test.

"It's very exciting to potentially put in the primary care physician's office as a direct read system where a patient could be told right away, 'Yes. It looks like something's there. Go get your mammogram earlier,'" Sheryl Gabram-Mendola, M.D., a surgical oncologist at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University in Atlanta, said.

Thanks to early detection and treatment, Witcher's cancer is behind her. Floyd Henry has plenty to sing about.

Though researchers say the breath test probably won't ever replace the mammogram, it could be invaluable to allow earlier intervention, regular testing for high risk women, and offer breast cancer screening to women in third world countries.

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