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Karmanos Institute part of lung-cancer breath-test study

The Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute is participating in tests to determine whether lung cancer can be detected through the analysis of a patient's breath.

"The Karmanos Cancer Institute currently has more than 95 patients with presumed lung cancer on this clinical trial to validate a breath test as a legitimate screening tool for the early detection of lung cancer,'' Harvey Pass said in a news release about the study. Pass is a professor of surgery and a member of the Karmanos Cancer Institute's lung-cancer multidisciplinary team. "So far, the breath test has detected lung cancer with some accuracy.''

A reliable screening tool is critical to saving the lives of those with lung cancer, Pass said.

The success rates for curing lung cancer are good when it is treated early, but only 21 percent of lung cancers are diagnosed early, and scientists have yet to develop a Food and Drug Administration-approved method of screening for lung cancer, according to information from the institute.

Researchers at Menssana Research Inc. of Fort Lee, N.J., developed the device that collects breath for analysis after they discovered that tiny molecules expelled in breathing may help screen for a range of conditions, including lung cancer.

Karmanos is participating in the multicenter study together with the University of California, Los Angeles; Danbury Hospital in...