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Human breath could help identify cancerous lung nodules and reduce the need for invasive testing. New Griffith University research analyzed exhaled breath to help doctors distinguish between cancerous and noncancerous lung nodules, supporting earlier lung cancer diagnosis. Approximately 2.5 million new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed each year.

Professor Chamindie Punyadeera of Griffith's Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics said the study evaluated two complementary technologies, both of which showed promise. The paper, "Complementary breath profiling using eNose and GC-MS for non-invasive triage of indeterminate pulmonary nodules," has been published in MedComm.

"We studied an electronic nose, or eNose, which identifies patterns in breath chemicals," Punyadeera said.

"The second technology was gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, which identified specific volatile organic compounds in breath.

"Both breath-based approaches showed substantially better discrimination between malignant and benign nodules than models using standard clinical information alone."

The research could reduce the need for invasive testing, which currently includes CT-guided lung biopsies to obtain tissue for a diagnosis.

Other invasive techniques include bronchoscopy to sample suspicious nodules or, in some cases, surgery to remove or investigate nodules that may be cancerous.

Patients sometimes undergo invasive procedures only to find out their nodules are noncancerous. Ultimately, 95% of pulmonary nodules identified on low-dose CT scans are found to be noncancerous.

Co-author Dr. Xi Zhang said, "Biopsying lung nodules can be technically challenging, particularly when lesions are small or difficult to access, and can cause complications such as pneumothorax, or a collapsed lung.

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