Could this chewing gum SAVE YOUR LIFE? Scientists develop new gum to detect cancer
A CHEWING gum that detects cancer could replace blood and urine tests, scientists have claimed.
Scientists have developed a chewing gum to detect cancer
Experts have developed the new gum designed to determine whether or not a patient has cancer.
Biotech company Volatile Analysis and non-profit Hudson Alpha hope the chewing gum could be made available as soon as next year, marking a huge change in cancer detection.
The Alabama-based firm says the gum could detect pancreatic, lung and breast cancer.
As patients chews the gum it absorbs chemical compounds known as “volatiles” found in a person’s saliva.
Once a patient has chewed the gum for 15 minutes it can be sent away for analysis to discover if the gum contains chemicals produced in the body when a person has cancer.
Doctors can then tell what type of cancer is present after determining which chemical compounds have been found.
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Each disease has different chemicals that come out through your breath
Katherine Bazemore, president and CEO of Volatile Analysis, said different volatile organic compounds are unique to each type of cancer.
She told the Mail: “Technically, the gum concentrates the volatiles.
“Each disease has different chemicals that come out through your breath.
The gum detects chemical compounds in a person's saliva
Scientists hope the gum could eliminate the need for blood tests
The gum is strong enough to withstand chewing for 15 minutes and testing with scientists hopeful the gum could eliminate the need for blood and urine tests which are commonly used to detect cancer.
It is currently in the testing stage.
Dr Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, told Fox News: “Over the last 15 years there have been a lot of attempts with different products and processes for early detection of cancer.
The gum will be analysed for chemical compounds unique to cancer
“None of these efforts are proven to detect cancer early.”
According to Cancer Research UK, there were around 357,000 new cases of cancer in the UK in 2014, that is 980 cases diagnosed every day.
In the US, around 1.6 million new cases of cancer were expected to be diagnosed in 2016 with breast and lung cancer among the most common.