New lung cancer detection tool tested in Moncton

The Vitalité Health Network is studying a tool to detect lung cancer. This experimental method might make it possible to detect a tumor at an early stage using a breath sample.

“If the result of this study is positive, this new technique for detecting lung cancer using breath analysis will be a major breakthrough in oncology,” explained Dr. Marcel Mallet.

This pulmonologist from the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Center in Moncton is conducting a study that will last one year and includes 90 people. He will submit patients with lung nodules to monitoring examinations.

These abnormal lung formations, cancerous or not, are found in nearly 35% of people who are screened for lung cancer. They are revealed during a thoracic computed tomography, an assembly of x-ray images generating a three-dimensional image. They usually lead a patient to undergo a biopsy. They then require monitoring of their growth.

The breath analysis technique studied by Dr. Mallet might reduce stress, complications and the number of unnecessary biopsies for patients and their families.

The pulmonologist specifies that this new technology makes it possible to analyze changes in the functioning of cells (in their metabolism) anywhere in the body.

Dr. Marcel Mallet – Courtesy: Vitality

“The screening test can therefore detect diseases that are present outside the lungs. This might lead to the detection of other types of cancer, such as breast cancer, or to the detection of precursor signs of other diseases, such as Alzheimer’s,” says Dr. Marcel Mallet.