Archive for the ‘Exposure Science’ Category
This is something that sounds so cool as an exposure monitoring technology that I hope it pans out experimentally and can be deployed.
Lung cancer cells may exude volatile organic compounds different than normal cells, principally as the byproducts of oxidative stress and byproducts of reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced processes. The differences may be detectable in breath samples. A monitoring tool is being investigated as a non-invasive way to identify non-small-cell lung cancer. The objective for this tool would be to increase the odds of starting treatment while the disease is in its early stages and still localized. The analytical method involves an array of gold nanoparticle sensors in combination with pattern recognition methods; this level of description is what has been found in the press coverage, and having written it I realize I know as much now as I did before hearing about this technique, which is zip. I’m reading the paper trying out the methodology with headspace samples of tumor cell lines, published in the journal Small and realizing I have a lot of catching up to do on analytical methods. . . .
The sensor can discriminate the breath of normal individuals from lung cancer patients, overcoming the problem of high humidity in the breath samples (a problem with the prior method using carbon nanotubules) and without requiring preconcentration of the breath samples (which would require more complex laboratory techniques). Hossam Haick, the lead investigator estimates this method could become available as a diagnostic tool in about three to five years.