Breath test could improve lung cancer screening

Such a screening program, if it were applied using strict criteria, "would avert 12,000 lung cancer deaths today," he asserted.

Adding measurement of VOCs in exhaled breath to the screening protocol could result in fewer invasive procedures for abnormal screening results, and VOC measurement could thus prove to be a simple, straight-forward cost-saving measure, Dr. Varghese added.

Dr. Eric Gartman, FCCP, comments: Current lung cancer screening recommendations remain quite controversial, and no matter one’s stance on the data, it would have to be agreed upon that further guidance on the appropriate screening population and further reduction in CT false positives are needed. In the near future, biomarker and exhaled breath phenotypes will dramatically change our screening for lung cancer and lead to earlier diagnoses.