Cancer: the Electronic nose is a smell, in whom an immune therapy has

On the basis of the substances in the breath of lung cancer patients is a small device called the eNose may predict which patients will respond to immune therapy, and which are not. With the help of the “electronic nose” can cause side effects in patients can be avoided, which would not benefit from such a treatment.

An immune therapy, only about one-fifth of all patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The success of estimating the prospects of immune therapy in the advance, provided the eNose, with an accuracy of 85 percent better results than the usual method. This is to test tissue samples for the patients unpleasant and time needed.

Although immunotherapy is generally better tolerated than chemotherapy, it can cause approximately 10 percent of patients have serious side effects. When the body begins its own immune system, his own attack cells that can inflame organs such as the lung, liver, and intestine. Through the correct identification of patients who do not respond to immune therapy may avoid such side effects.

Researchers at the Dutch cancer Institute in Amsterdam have used the eNose to capture, in 92 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer respiratory profile two weeks prior to the start of an immune therapy. Three months later, they assessed whether the patients had responded to the drug. The insights they gained through these 92 patients, they tested then to 51 additional patients and published the results in the journal Annals of Oncology.

For the patient, the measurement is easy and takes less than a Minute: The Patient breathes in deeply, holds the air for five seconds and breathe out slowly into the device. The Sensors of the eNose respond to volatile substances in the exhaled air, and the sensor values are processed in real-time. The results are compared with an Online database of machine-learning algorithms to detect whether the Patient is responding to therapy or not.

ZOU