Breath Biopsy for Early Lung Cancer Detection on BBC

Last Wednesday, the BBC’s ‘Look East’ news program featured Owlstone Medical’s latest trial, a Phase 1a/1b clinical trial for breath-based early detection of lung cancer using a metabolic probe targeting tumor specific extracellular β-glucuronidase.

The clinical trial at Royal Papworth Hospital administers a liquid via a drip which contains the EVOC^® Probe D5-EthGlu. This is followed by a 15-minute wait and a series of breath tests using our ReCIVA^® Breath Sampler. Lung cancer patients are expected to produce D5-ethanol from D5-EthGlu administration due to tumor specific extracellular β-glucuronidase activity whilst healthy patients should not.

Wendy was one of the first lung cancer patients enrolled on our trial. Wendy’s cancer is early-stage, and it was only discovered by chance when she had a CT scan ahead of a planned back surgery. Now she hopes this research may give others that same chance of early detection which she had:

“The mask is really comfortable, the nurses are so good and it’s been a relaxing, comfortable experience.”

“Research like this is very important. So many people would benefit from this early detection test which is amazing and why I was so keen to sign up to research and would encourage all patients to do the same.”

You can read more on this story online:

Royal Papworth Hospital    BBC Cambridgeshire

Owlstone Medical’s aim is to improve early detection of diseases by developing breath tests using our Breath Biopsy^® platform.