Scientists in Israel are working on a breathalyzer they believe
is able to detect lung cancer as easily as your garden variety
intoxication detector (pictured above). Similar tests are in the
works but require a pretreatment of the breath, which adds time,
cost and complexity to a procedure. The Israeli breathalyzer's
bypassing of such pretreatments is being attributed to
advancements in nanotechnology. In a study conducted by the
team, 56 healthy volunteers and 40 people who were known to have
lung cancer were tested by the breathalyzer without any
pretreatment, using a sensor made up of nine gold nanoparticle
chemiresistors. The results were promising: 33 distinct
biomarkers set the people with lung cancer apart from those who
had healthy lungs. The only question now is how early on the
breathalyzer can detect traces of cancer. The subjects tested
were all advanced, and cancer treatment success relies heavily
on early warnings. Via Ars Technica