Owlstone knocks the breath out of cancer

Owlstone, a spin-out of Cambridge University, is set to trial a diagnostic device which looks for markers of cancer in breath at National Health Service hospitals in the UK.

Originally based on technology developed to detect explosives, Owlstone’s device, Lucid, could both save tens of thousands of lives in the UK every year through early detection of cancer, as well as reduce the NHS’ costs of screening for cancer by £245m ($377m).

Owlstone has also secured a £1m grant from NHS England’s Small Business Research Initiative for Healthcare to further trial the technology.

Billy Boyle, Owlstone co-founder, said he felt compelled to investigate the potential of the technology in cancer detection after his wife was diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 34.

Discussing the technology, Boyle said: “The human body makes chemicals; a lot of them are just normal, everyday chemicals, but with cancer and other diseases the cells go a bit wrong and start to make chemicals differently. So by programming the chips in software to look for these different characteristic signatures and chemical markers you can program it to look for a range of different diseases.”