Breathomics: May it Become an Affordable, New Tool for Early Diagnosis and Screening of Lung Cancer?

The breath of patients with histologically proven NSCLC and healthy controls was sampled into Tedlar bags through a Nafion filter and a one-way mouthpiece. The breath samples in the bags were then analyzed by an automated micro portable gas chromatography device developed in-house, which consisted of a thermal desorption tube, thermal injector, separation column, and photoionization detector, as well as other accessories such as pumps, valves, and a helium cartridge. The chromatograms were analyzed by chemometrics and machine learning techniques.