IIT Roorkee develops breath-based cancer detector

NEW DELHI: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee have developed an easy-to-use breath based cancer detector (BLO detector). This device works on principles of colorimetry and will be able to detect breast, lung and oral cancer.

The BLO detector will become important for screening the population and identifying people susceptible to breast, lung or oral cancer. A positive result can lead to early diagnosis and treatment and therefore, can increase survival rate of cancer patients. The detector has undergone an initial clinical test at Cancer Research Institute in Dehradun with a sensitivity and specificity of 96.11 per cent and 94.67 per cent respectively.

The device is a simple breast-lung-oral cancer screening device where a person is required to blow into the device. Immediately after the test, one can match the color of the substrate with the color codes provided to understand the chances of having any of the three types of cancer.

IIT Roorkee has signed a technology transfer with Tata Steel's new materials business under Debashish Bhattacharjee. The new materials business under Tata Steel focuses on developing indigenous solutions and reducing import dependency in various sectors, including health technology. IIT Roorkee will also be working with the company on a new project in the future.

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Talking about the technology transfer, IIT Roorkee acting director ML Sharma, said: "The earlier the cancer is detected, more are the chances of full recovery. Where cancer detection in today's world is becoming costly, I am humbled to know that this technology transfer will bear fruits for people who suffer from cancer and go on without detection."

Previously, IIT Roorkee announced that researchers have identified three proteins in saliva that may predict metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) on September 29, 2022. Additionally, IIT Guwahati developed a new strategy to deliver chemotherapeutic drugs specifically to the cancerous cells in a patient's body and sets up a research centre of cancer diagnostics in September 2022.