Nanoscale Artificial Nose – Oral Cancer News

Artificial nose could hold the key in detecting head and neck cancer

Source: www.healthcanal.com Author: staff An artificial nose could hold the key in detecting head-and-neck (HNC), according to scientists. The results1 have shown the man-made Nanoscale Artificial Nose (NA-NOSE), developed at the Israel Institute of Technology2, can effectively distinguish between head-and-neck cancer patients, lung cancer patients and those free of oral cancer simply by sampling a breath test. Head-and-neck cancer is the eighth most common curable cancer worldwide and is often diagnosed late due to a lack of successful screening methods. Research suggests overall cure is achieved in less than one in two patients, while sufferers often develop a second primary tumour that can affect the entire aero-digestive tract, making lifelong follow-up necessary. As this appears to be the first study of its kind, Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, Dr Nigel Carter, believes more needs to be done in order to validate this promising breakthrough in the battle against oral cancer. Dr Carter said: "The discovery of an effective screening method for a cancer which kills one person every five hours in the UK using a relatively simple method represents excellent progress. However, the Foundation urges greater investigation into the feasibility of using such a device on a larger scale. "The Foundation runs Mouth Cancer Action throughout November under the tagline ‘If in doubt, get checked out'. The campaign aims to raise awareness of mouth cancer among the public and encourage people to visit their dentist or doctor for regular check-ups. If a breath test could hold the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-07-03T14:38:43-07:00July, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

New Breath Test to Identify Head and Neck Cancer

Source: British Journal of Cancer M Hakim, S Billan, U Tisch, G Peng, I Dvrokind, O Marom, R Abdah-Bortnyak, A Kuten and H Haick Abstract Background: Head-and-neck cancer (HNC) is the eighth most common malignancy worldwide. It is often diagnosed late due to a lack of screening methods and overall cure is achieved in <50% of patients. Head-and-neck cancer sufferers often develop a second primary tumour that can affect the entire aero-digestive tract, mostly HNC or lung cancer (LC), making lifelong follow-up necessary. Methods: Alveolar breath was collected from 87 volunteers (HNC and LC patients and healthy controls) in a cross-sectional clinical trial. The discriminative power of a tailor-made Nanoscale Artificial Nose (NA-NOSE) based on an array of five gold nanoparticle sensors was tested, using 62 breath samples. The NA-NOSE signals were analysed to detect statistically significant differences between the sub-populations using (i) principal component analysis with ANOVA and Student's t-test and (ii) support vector machines and cross-validation. The identification of NA-NOSE patterns was supported by comparative analysis of the chemical composition of the breath through gas chromatography in conjunction with mass spectrometry (GC–MS), using 40 breath samples. Results: The NA-NOSE could clearly distinguish between (i) HNC patients and healthy controls, (ii) LC patients and healthy controls, and (iii) HNC and LC patients. The GC–MS analysis showed statistically significant differences in the chemical composition of the breath of the three groups. Conclusion: The presented results could lead to the development of a cost-effective, fast, and reliable method for the differential [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-05-11T10:55:38-07:00May, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Potential of cancer breath test studied

Source: www.nhs.uk Author: staff “A breath test that can detect cancer with an ‘electronic nose’ has been developed by scientists,” reported the Daily Express. The newspaper said the device detects microscopic chemical changes that are emitted in the breath of people with head and neck tumours. The news report is based on a small study that looked at breath samples from 62 people using the Na-Nose, 16 of whom had head and neck cancer, 20 had lung cancer and 26 were healthy. The test was able to distinguish between these individuals by looking at the presence and levels of certain chemicals in their breath samples. Only two healthy individuals were falsely suggested to have head and neck cancer. This small study has promising results, but the findings will need to be confirmed in much larger samples, representative of the different types and stages of head and neck cancer. If the results are favourable, then the Na-Nose would need to be trialled against existing standards of care to assess its potential benefits and risks. A non-invasive breath test for various cancers is an appealing option, particularly for those cancers that are difficult to detect in other ways. Undoubtedly, this is an area that will receive much more research in the future. As the Daily Express reports, it would probably be many more years before a breath test could be available in a clinical environment. Where did the story come from? The study was carried out by researchers from Technion – The [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-04-20T21:22:02-07:00April, 2011|Oral Cancer News|