CDC reports: Lung cancer has highest fatality rate among all cancer.
Because lung cancer is typically detected late, there are few treatment options available, which ultimately raises the death rate. Recent Experiment research from the University of Louisville revealed a newly developed lung cancer detection test that may be able to pinpoint which Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are more likely to be identified in people with this. The study was published in the journal PLOS One.
Currently, how is Lung cancer detected?
Currently, high-risk people are given access to CT scans for the purpose of detecting lung cancer. The subject of early cancer detection is one that is actively being researched. From the GRAIL project, which revealed part of the results from its attempt to develop a blood test that can identify cancer and where in the body it is from, to epigenetic testing, which can tell whether a person has ovarian, breast, or cervical cancer from cervical smear samples.
Researchers hope that earlier detection will help save lives and money as more treatment options become accessible.
Possibility of using VOC
The possibility of utilizing VOC measurements to find lung cancer is another subject that has generated considerable interest. Dr. Mike Davies of the University of Liverpool, a researcher who works closely with the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, asserts that although chemicals are carried to the lungs by blood from all over the body, they are not necessarily brought on by tumors.
Medical News Today reported him as saying that “Chemicals emitted by any region of the body, including illnesses or tumors anyplace in the body, truly circulate around the circulatory system.” “And they will be expelled in the breath once they have reached the lungs.
Ketones serve as a concrete illustration of this; the breath that certain diabetics produce follows a similar pattern in that they are released into the bloodstream and exhale them.
The difficulties
Prof. Robert Rintoul, a professor of thoracic oncology at Cambridge University in the UK, talked about the challenges associated with diagnosing and treating lung cancer in an interview with MNT.
“Unfortunately, the majority of people with lung cancer pass away from their illness. And the reason for it is that out of all the cases reported, around 75% of them are in an advanced state.
The present research
In the current study, researchers developed a method to capture the breaths of 414 participants. From the families of the patients, 193 healthy control participants were chosen, 156 of whom had untreated lung cancer, and 65 of whom had benign nodules in the lungs.
The majority of those who developed lung cancer were either current or former smokers. Of the controls, 80 had never smoked, whereas 113 had either smoked recently or in the past. The group was substantially older than the group of people in good health.
Exhaled air samples were gathered using a newly developed method to detect the various types of VOC present, and the researchers used machine learning to determine whether the VOCs detected in cancer patients were connected to their condition.
According to the PLOS One study, this resulted in the identification of a cluster of seven VOCs that, when they occurred together, suggested the existence of lung cancers.
