Breath test for detection of early-stage lung cancer

Science Daily has published a possibly new method of lung cancer detection. Molecular messages and signals circulating in blood or contained in cells lining the airway can identify early stage cancer, according to research reported today at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. A series of quietly exhaled breaths might indicate whether or not a patient is at risk for lung cancer, according to researchers from the New York State Department of Health. Using DNA recovered from exhaled breath, researchers can examine the state of cells that line the lungs, and potentially detect cancer at an early stage, when treatment may be most successful.