New Brunswick study explores breath test for earlier breast cancer detection

Moncton researchers testing breath samples to detect breast cancer earlier

More than 32,000 Canadians expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year

Breast cancer can be challenging to detect in women with dense breast tissue, but researchers in New Brunswick are trying to change that by analyzing compounds in a patient's breath.

Vitalité Health Network and Moncton-based Breathe BioMedical are conducting the study. It's the first Canadian site participating in the study, according to a news release from Vitalité.

“Humans, in their breath, have what we call VOCs, so volatile organic compounds,” said Dr. Jocelyne Hébert, who is leading the study being conducted in Moncton.

“Depending on what's going on in your body … you will express different VOCs and we're trying to identify a specific pattern of VOCs expressed by patients who have breast cancer.”

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The goal is to be able to detect breast cancer earlier and make the breath test another way to screen for breast cancer in addition to a mammogram, she said.

“We have a higher rate of false [negatives] when you're having a mammogram when you have high breast density,” she said.

“Patients with high breast density, they have a higher risk of breast cancer as well.”

Study still in very early stages

Researchers are still gathering breath samples from patients, so the study is still in the very early stages, she said.

According to the release, the preliminary results have shown that the tests identified differences in the breath signatures of women with early-stage breast cancer with 88.2 per cent accuracy.

Hébert said patients with suspicious lesions detected during breast imaging are invited to participate in the study before they get a biopsy.

“You basically breathe in a machine,” she said. “It's not more complicated than blowing up a balloon.”

“[Some] patients undergo a mammogram and an MRI every year and hopefully this breath test can replace the yearly MRI just to check if they have breast cancer.”

Kimberly Carson, CEO of Breast Cancer Canada, called the study “a phenomenal step forward.”

Breast Cancer Canada is a national charity that invests in a variety of research projects focused on screening and detection, treatment, patient outcomes and long-term effects on survivors.

“There's multitudes of ways that we're looking at earlier detection, which is fantastic because if we catch it early, we know the outcomes are so much better,” she said.

Carson said investing in early screening and detection can lead to less invasive procedures for patients, help mitigate long-term effects and prevent the cancer from spreading.

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women living in Canada and over 32,000 will be diagnosed this year.

“I would love to see us have no one dying of breast cancer ever,” said Carson.

Hope Edmond is a reporter based in Moncton.

With files from Information Morning in the Summer