ווער האט דאס געשריבן? און וואס באדייטן די ווערטער?

The study confirmed that the different lung cell lines had different VOC signatures, says Smith. 'This extremely interesting finding paves the way for detecting particular cells (including tumour cells) on the basis of their VOC signature' says Claire Turner, an expert in VOC analysis at the Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. 'The long term significance is that it may be possible to not only detect cancer through VOC analysis but also to non-invasively identify the tumour type'. 

'This work will be continued with the investigation of other cell types, malignant and non-malignant, in the search for volatile biomarkers of other cancers' adds Smith. He hopes that in future the technique could be introduced into the GP's surgery to allow routine and opportunistic screening for cancer and also for other diseases, such as diabetes and kidney disease.

George Hanna, a consultant surgeon at St Mary's Hospital, London, UK, agrees that this could be possible, saying '[this technique] has the potential to change clinical practice being a simple non-invasive test. It is ideally placed to be a practical screening test that changes clinical practice.'