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From Military To Medicine, Owlstone Medical Targets Lung Cancer With Its Breath Analysis Tech

 
• By Catherine Longworth

Owlstone Medical is on a mission to “save 100,000 lives and £1.5bn in health-care costs by 2020” by applying a gas sensor technology, originally developed for military defense purposes, for early stage detection of lung cancer.

smoking cigarette in the hand of young man close up
Owlstone Medical targets lung cancer with its breath analysis tech • Source: Shutterstock

Lung cancer has one of the worst prognosis among the different cancers, especially when detected at a late stage. According to figures from the NHS, in the UK alone around 44,500 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year and 35,200 will die. If detected at stage 1, the five-year survival rate for lung cancer is 54%, but this drops to just 4% if the cancer is detected at stage 4.

Owlstone Medical, a Cambridge-based diagnostics company, is aiming to bring to market a breathalyzer test that can improve lung cancer outcomes by

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