# Breath and volatile-organic-compound detection

Source: https://onco.cc/technologies/breath-vocs/  
OnCo record `breath-vocs` (Technology). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Smelling cancer: measuring the trace chemicals a tumour puts into exhaled breath.

## Summary

Tumour metabolism alters volatile organic compounds in breath, measurable by mass spectrometry or an electronic nose. Studies recruiting in 2026 include COBRA2 in colorectal cancer at Imperial College (NCT05844514), an e-nose response-monitoring study at Memorial Sloan Kettering (NCT06037941), and a breast cancer study by Breathe BioMedical (NCT06512350). Reported accuracies vary widely between cohorts and no breath test is approved for screening.

## Fields

- Kind: Technology
- Status: phase-2
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Tags: frontier
- Principle: Breath is collected on a sorbent tube or sampled directly; gas chromatography-mass spectrometry or sensor arrays produce a pattern that machine learning classifies.
- Strengths: Completely non-invasive and cheap; Repeatable, so suitable for monitoring; Could triage who needs imaging
- Limitations: Poor reproducibility across sites, diets and smoking status; No approved test; most studies are small case-control designs; Specificity in screening populations is unproven

## Sources

- COBRA2 (NCT05844514): https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05844514
- MSK e-nose study (NCT06037941): https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06037941

## Connected records

- cancers: [Colorectal cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/colorectal/), [Non-small-cell lung cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/nsclc/)
- fronts: [Diagnostics & Biomarkers](https://onco.cc/fronts/diagnostics/), [Early Detection & Screening](https://onco.cc/fronts/early-detection/)
- technologies: [Colorectal cancer screening (colonoscopy, FIT, stool DNA, blood)](https://onco.cc/technologies/colorectal-screening/), [Liquid biopsy (ctDNA)](https://onco.cc/technologies/liquid-biopsy/), [Multi-cancer early detection (MCED)](https://onco.cc/technologies/mced/)
- terms: [Positive predictive value (PPV)](https://onco.cc/terms/ppv/), [Stage shift](https://onco.cc/terms/stage-shift/)
- roadmaps: [Paths to cures: interception, eradication, control](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/cure-paths/), [Radical oncology: what could change the war by 2035](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/frontier-2035/)

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