BARI, Italy: Colorectal cancer, commonly known as colon cancer or bowel cancer, has one of the highest mortality rates of all cancer types. Yet no effective screening tool exists for the detection of this cancer. Italian researchers have now investigated a way to diagnose colorectal cancer by testing patients’ breath for chemicals linked to the disease.
In their study, researchers from the University of Bari investigated two groups of participants, 37 patients with diagnosed colorectal cancer and 41 healthy controls. Their exhaled breath was collected in a gas-sampling bag and evaluated for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that could be red flags for cancer. According to the researchers, tumour growth involves several metabolic changes, leading to the production of specific compounds that can be detected in exhaled breath and thus analysis of the VOCs linked to cancer is a new frontier in cancer screening.
The researchers identified 15 of the 58 specific VOCs that are associated with colorectal cancer, and were able to distinguish with over 75 per cent accuracy which patients had cancer and which were healthy. Among the cancer patients, the team correctly identified 19 as having colorectal tumours.
“Breath VOC analysis appears to have potential clinical application in colorectal cancer screening, although further studies are required to confirm its reliability in heterogeneous clinical settings,” the researchers concluded.
The study, titled “Exhaled volatile organic compounds identify patients with colorectal cancer”, was published online ahead of print in the British Journal of Surgery.
Source: Dental Tribune
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