Sunday, February 21, 2016

A New Breathalyzer Test

    
  Again I was listening to a radio interview on quirks and Quarks and heard about a new use for a breathalyzer. 

     The medical researchers have always tried to diagnose cancer as early as possible as there's a better chance for successful treatment. Much research has been done and there's lots more to do. Under certain conditions cancer is diagnosed earlier but there's a long way to go..

     This post fits in with a post I did on Jan. 13 , 2016,    about dogs being used to identify cancer. The researchers I heard about this morning are trying to develop a breathalyzer test to identify cancer. Yes, you blow in a breathalyzer and certain chemicals from different cancers can be identified. They can identify breast cancer with up to 99% accuracy. Dr. Charlene Bayer from Georgia Tech research institute is leading this research. That's much better than some of the invasive tests that are presently used. They still cannot identify a stage one cancer which is the goal for early detection..

     It's one of the technologies that is promising for early cancer identification. They also use a breathalyzer for diabetes. They also use a temporary tattoo to test blood sugar for diabetes instead of drawing blood to test the blood sugar. Moisture on the skin can be used to measure blood sugar. The tattoo is not presently approved for use but it works.

    I'm not sure what stage my mother's breast cancer was in when she was diagnosed in 1973, but she lived less than a year after diagnosis.

    I hope that this research does prove to be successful to identify cancers at a much earlier stage. 

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