According to the USA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lung cancer is the third most common cancer and the leading cause of death in the United States of America.
They say that since this type of cancer is diagnosed late. There is limited time to treat it and as a result the mortality rate is higher.
Recently, researchers at the University of Louisville conducted a study, which was published in the medical journal PLOS.
According to this research, medical experts from other countries, including India, America and Britain, have discovered a new method that makes early diagnosis of lung cancer possible.
How is lung cancer diagnosed now?
Now a days some blood tests and CT scan are done to diagnose lung cancer. However, these tests get more delay to diagnosis of the disease.
By epigenetic testing to blood tests, many investigations have been done to make early cancer diagnosis possible.
According to the medical researchers, the sooner cancer is diagnosed, the better. As it can save the patient’s life as well as money and time.
Experts say that the majority of lung cancer patients unfortunately die due to this disease. Because at the time of diagnosis, about more than 70% of the cancer is in the last stage.
Cancer diagnosis by VOC
Experts conducted breath tests on some volunteers to diagnose cancer and noted the presence of special chemicals in their breath by breath testing machines.
According to medical experts, people whose breath contained VOS chemicals (Volatile Organic Compounds) found in the blood and human body were diagnosed with cancer.
Research has shown that the presence of 7 types of chemicals in human breath in a computerized breath testing machine means a diagnosis of cancer.
That is, if the machine detects the presence of 7 types of chemicals in the breath of any person, they will be diagnosed as with lung cancer.
Current New Research
According to the research published in the medical journal, experts from other countries. Including the India UK and USA, conducted breath tests on 416 people to discover a new method.
The study included 192 people who were selected from families with a family members was history of lung cancer and who also smoked.
Most of them, 155 people, had cancer but had not been treated. The 80 volunteers included in the study were completely healthy. They did not even smoke, while 65 volunteers were found to have benign nodules in their lungs.
Among the study participants were 112 people who smoked or had smoked in the past.
Results
The researchers of the study, published in PLOS One (a medical magazine). Used machine learning to investigate whether the VOCs found in cancer patients were related to their disease.
The researchers claimed that this led to the discovery of a cluster of 7-VOCs, which, when they appeared together, indicated the presence of lung cancer.
Concerns
However, experts who have been researching lung cancer for a long time believe that the 7 chemicals discussed in the aforementioned study. May be released from human breath for various other reasons.
According to experts, all chemicals released from the human body or blood are exhaled after accumulating in the lungs. So different chemicals released from the breath at the same time usually do not mean cancer.
Experts also stressed the need for more research on newly discovered methods of lung cancer diagnosis.
