{"entity":{"id":"breath-vocs","kind":"technology","name":"Breath and volatile-organic-compound detection","aka":[],"tldr":"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.","status":"phase-2","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"COBRA2 (NCT05844514)","url":"https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05844514"},{"label":"MSK e-nose study (NCT06037941)","url":"https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06037941"}],"tags":["frontier"],"related":[],"cancers":["colorectal","nsclc"],"sections":["early-detection","diagnostics"],"technologies":["mced","liquid-biopsy","colorectal-screening"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["ppv","stage-shift"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"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"]},"route":"/technologies/breath-vocs/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"colorectal","kind":"cancer","name":"Colorectal cancer","route":"/cancers/colorectal/"},{"id":"nsclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Non-small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/nsclc/"}],"section":[{"id":"diagnostics","kind":"section","name":"Diagnostics & Biomarkers","route":"/fronts/diagnostics/"},{"id":"early-detection","kind":"section","name":"Early Detection & Screening","route":"/fronts/early-detection/"}],"technology":[{"id":"colorectal-screening","kind":"technology","name":"Colorectal cancer screening (colonoscopy, FIT, stool DNA, blood)","route":"/technologies/colorectal-screening/"},{"id":"liquid-biopsy","kind":"technology","name":"Liquid biopsy (ctDNA)","route":"/technologies/liquid-biopsy/"},{"id":"mced","kind":"technology","name":"Multi-cancer early detection (MCED)","route":"/technologies/mced/"}],"term":[{"id":"ppv","kind":"term","name":"Positive predictive value (PPV)","route":"/terms/ppv/"},{"id":"stage-shift","kind":"term","name":"Stage shift","route":"/terms/stage-shift/"}],"roadmap":[{"id":"cure-paths","kind":"roadmap","name":"Paths to cures: interception, eradication, control","route":"/roadmaps/cure-paths/"},{"id":"frontier-2035","kind":"roadmap","name":"Radical oncology: what could change the war by 2035","route":"/roadmaps/frontier-2035/"}]}}