RESEARCHERS IN JAPAN DEVELOP SENSOR THAT MAY DETECT CANCER FROM BREATH

TOKYO: In the future it may become possible for a person to easily check their health by connecting a sensor to a smartphone or other device.

The National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Japan played the leading role in developing a small sensor capable of detecting substances in a person’s exhalations with high accuracy by analysing the odour of the breath.

To put this technology into practical use, the institute has been working with the Kyocera, NEC and Sumitomo Seika Chemicals corporations, Osaka University and a precision equipment maker in Switzerland.

A “film” installed in the sensor, which is a tiny chip a few millimetres square, determines whether there are substances peculiar to cancer patients’ breath and calculates whether a person is suspected to have cancer.

By just exhaling into the sensor, which is connected to a smartphone or other device, the result can be displayed on the screen of the device in a graph or other form.

According to NIMS, it is highly likely that the sensor will be able to distinguish what kind of cancer a person has if the sensor’s accuracy is improved and data on odour is collected.

Peculiar odours are said to be found in the respiration of patients who are suffering from diabetes, kidney and liver diseases, asthma and those with Helicobacter pylori (a type of bacteria that causes infection in the stomach).

The sensor may make it possible to judge what kind of diseases people have.

The sensor costs a few hundred yen to make and can be produced in large quantities. It is expected to take about six years to develop it for practical use, as it is necessary to collect data on the odours associated with various cancers, improve the sensor’s precision and have it certified as medical equipment by the government, according to sources.

Cancer is the leading cause of death among Japanese people, with nearly 400 000 people dying each year. Yet screenings for the disease is about 40 percent – said to be about half that in the US and some European nations.

Major reasons cited for not getting cancer screening in a survey were: not having the time, the cost involved and feeling uneasy about pain.

Self-checks with the app would likely improve the medical examination rate.

Nippon Medical School Professor Masao Miyashita, an expert on digestive surgery and cancer, said: “It will be epoch-making if such a simple examination of exhalations becomes widely available.”

Research on diagnosing diseases through exhalations started in Europe and the US more than 10 years ago.

A group of researchers, including some at Kyushu University, submitted a report to a British Medical Journal in 2011 stating that cancer patients have peculiar odours in their respiration that can be detected by a dog specially trained to sniff out the exhalations of cancer patients.

Also, researchers at Juntendo University are studying a method of identifying oesophageal cancer patients through their exhalations. – The Japan News/Yomiuri