Engineers develop breathalyser to detect lung cancer

Owlstone has won £1 million funding from the NHS to develop the technology

Engineers are developing a cancer detection device that works by measuring volatile organic compounds in patients' breath.

Owlstone, a spinout company from the University of Cambridge, has won £1 million funding from the NHS to develop the technology.

The Lucid (Lung Cancer Indicator Detection) project ultimately aims to diagnose lung cancer at an earlier stage when survival rates are dramatically better.

Using nanofabrication techniques, Owlstone has developed a complete chemical detection system on a chip. The technology uses a Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectrometer (FAIMS), the size of a small coin, which has the ability to rapidly monitor a broad range of chemicals at very low quantities with high confidence.

The first phase of the Lucid project has identified and detected 12 markers of lung cancer were shown to be detectable by Owlstone’s FAIMS technology, which is a cheaper and smaller alternative to existing detection technologies, said the company.

The new funding for the second phase will be targeted towards the delivery of a breath sampler – a customised breathalyser suitable for use in a doctor's surgery or hospital, and clinical validation of the method.

Billy Boyle, Owlstone co-founder, said: “If you could change only one thing in the fight against cancer it would be to detect the disease earlier where existing treatments are already proven to save lives.

“FAIMS technology has the potential to bring a quick and easy to use breath test to a GP’s office. Our team will not rest until we help stop the daily devastation that cancer brings to patients and their families.”

More details on the FAIMS technology are available here: http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/cancer-breathalyser-created-owlstone-cambridge-detection-technology-specialist