Sex and Smoking Status Effects on the Early Detection of Early Lung Cancer in High-Risk Smokers Using an Electronic Nose.

Objective: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath as measured by electronic nose (e-nose) have utility as biomarkers to detect subjects at risk of having lung cancer in a screening setting. We hypothesize that breath analysis using an e-nose chemo-resistive sensor array could be used as a screening tool to discriminate patients diagnosed with lung cancer from high-risk smokers.

Methods: Breath samples from 191 subjects-25 lung cancer patients and 166 high-risk smoker control subjects without cancer-were analyzed.