The Australian is reporting that Australian researcher Professor Christobel Saunders has been awarded the 2006 Novel Concept Award by the National Breast Cancer Foundation to research the development of a breath test device to detect breast cancer.

"Previous studies have found that in women with breast cancer these VOCs are significantly and specifically altered, providing a marker which can indicate the presence, and also importantly the lack, of breast cancer in patients," Professor Saunders said. "Considering some of the downsides of mammograms, including the pain and discomfort experienced by a few patients and the number of false positive findings, which can result in needless anxiety and biopsies, this device has the potential to be used in conjunction with existing screening procedures, increasing the accuracy of diagnosis."

In addition, State University of New York at Buffalo researchers are building the breathalyzer device, a pocket-sized portable chemical sensor that will test a person's breath to detect cancer and a team of researchers at the University of Michigan won a Breast Cancer Research Program Idea award to develop a portable device to test breath for the presence of metabolites associated with breast cancer. Previous studies have proven human breath from the body changes when disease is present.