By David Liu, PHD

Friday Dec 7, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study published in British Journal of Surgery suggests that in the future, a person's exhaled breath may be analysed to help diagnose colorectal cancer.

D. F. Altomare at Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, University 'Aldo Moro' of Bari, Bari, Italy and colleagues analyzed data from 37 colorectal cancer patients and 41 healthy controls for the volatile organic compounds and found a pattern of these compounds may be used to determine who had suffered colorectal cancer.

Researchers were able to identify 15 volatile organic compounds to construct a pattern that can help diagnose colorectal cancer with a sensitivity, specificity and accuracy all at 85%.  After validated, the method was able to achieve an accuracy at 76%.

The pattern of volatile organic compounds in patients with colorectal cancer was found different from what was observed in healthy controls.

Colorectal cancer including colon cancer and rectum cancer is expected in 103,170 men and women in the United States in 2012 and the disease is expected to kill 51,690 men and women in the same country and the same year.

Exhaled breath may also be analyzed to help diagnose lung cancer with a much high accuracy.

Y. Wang at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China and colleagues published a study in Cancer Biomarkers saying that a method based on a pattern of 23 volatile organic compounds  "could easily discriminate lung cancer patients from controls with 96.47% sensitivity and 97.47% specificity."

The findings were remarkable because conventional diagnostic methods are so ineffective that many cases of lung cancer when diagnosed are already in a late stage and because of this, the death risk of lung cancer is very  high.

Wang's study involved in  88 lung cancer patients, 70 lung benign disease and 85 healthy people. The instrument used for the study was Solid Phase Micro Extraction-Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (SPME-GCMS).

Lung cancer is highly deadly malignancy.  An estimated 226,160 men and women are expected to be diagnosed with lung cancer in the U.S. in 2012 and the disease, complications and its treatments are expected to kill 160,340 patients in the same country in the same year, according to the National Cancer Institute.