呼吸筛查癌症进入临床试验 In the United States , many people think of drunk driving when they hear the term breathalyzer . If you are suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol , police will most likely ask you to breathe into a breathalyzer .
This device identifies how much alcohol is in your blood by measuring the amount of alcohol in your breath . Now , researchers are using the same technology to test for something else : cancer .
This breathalyzer , created by Owlstone Medical , can identify and measure chemicals in a person ' s breath . And it finds these chemicals at very low levels , usually parts per billion .
British researchers have asked 1 , 500 people to take part in tests of the device . Each person will wear a special mask and breathe normally for 10 minutes .
The mask is equipped with collection tubes . These tubes capture the chemicals in the person ' s breath . The lead investigator is Rebecca Fitzgerald of Cambridge University in England . She says the Owlstone breathalyzer is a simple device .
These tubes -- simple though they look -- this is one of the things that ' s made a real difference in this technology looking so promising , because for the first time the chemicals that are breathed out in the breath , can be collected in these tubes and immediately stabilized .
So as you keep breathing you ' re capturing more and more of those chemicals and you ' re building up a profile of the chemicals in your body that are being exhaled on the breath . The tubes are then sent to Owlstone ' s laboratory .
There , researchers examined the volatile organic compounds in the breath . Those VOCs , as they are known , are produced by the body ' s normal chemical processes .
However , changes in chemical activity can produce particular markings . And those markings can be biomarkers , providing evidence of disease . Some biomarkers may show evidence of cancer in its earliest stages .
Cancer develops in stages . The earlier cancer is identified , the greater the chance of survival . One of Owlstone ' s founders is Billy Boyle . He says cancer often appears or as he says , presents itself after it has spread .
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