Breath test device at centre of cancer clinical trial

Researchers from the Cancer Research Centre in Cambridge have launched a clinical trial to develop a breath test for multiple cancers.

The trial will use the Breath Biopsy technology developed by Owlstone Medical which is designed to detect cancer signs in molecules exhaled by patients.

1,500 people will take part in the trial, including healthy people, to analyse volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the breath to see if they can detect signals of different cancer types – with the trial starting with patients with suspected oesophageal and stomach cancers and will then expand to prostate, kidney, bladder, liver and pancreatic cancers.

The trial will last for two years and take place at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. Patients will breathe into the device for 10 minutes to collect a sample, which will then be processed by Owlstone Medical’s Breath Biopsy laboratory.

Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, lead trial investigator and co-lead of the Early Detection Programme, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre, said: “We urgently need to develop new tools, like this breath test, which could help to detect and diagnose cancer earlier, giving patients the best chance of surviving their disease.

“Through this clinical trial we hope to find signatures in breath needed to detect cancers earlier – it’s the crucial next step in developing this technology. Owlstone Medical’s Breath Biopsy technology is the first to test across multiple cancer types, potentially paving the way for a universal breath test.”

If the technology proves to accurately identify cancer, the team hope that Breath Biopsy could be used in the future in GP practices to determine whether to refer patients for further tests.

Billy Boyle, co-founder and CEO at Owlstone Medical, said: “There is increasing potential for breath-based tests to aid diagnosis, sitting alongside blood and urine tests in an effort to help doctors detect and treat disease. The concept of providing a whole-body snapshot in a completely non-invasive way is very powerful and could reduce harm by sparing patients from more invasive tests that they don’t need.

“Our technology has proven to be extremely effective at detecting VOCs in the breath, and we are proud to be working with Cancer Research UK as we look to apply it towards the incredibly important area of detecting early-stage disease in a range of cancers in patients.”